Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained
by TheAlimghtyBecks
Summary: After a weird evening at a local bar, Chloe Beale finds herself in the bathroom in a house belonging to someone she doesn't know. She ends up staying the night not realising who this person really is. AU Bechole endgame. *ON TEMPORARY HIATUS*
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:**  
 **This is my first ever FanFic so be gentle with me! I've not written anything creative since college (which was sometime ago now) and I dont expect this to be very good but we shall see. Happy reading!**

Chloe didn't know why she did what she did that night. It wasn't exactly like her to go home with random people she met in bars, it is dangerous after all, she didn't know a thing about these people, but she did it anyway. There was something about the group of guys that took her interest. They were fun and exciting, charming even. Maybe that was what persuaded her, who knows? She certainly didn't. One minute she's trying to drink away the pain caused by her now ex boyfriend, Tom, with probably too many glasses of chardonnay, the next she's shooting Tequila with 4 men she didn't know and accepting the offer of going back to their house for more drinking and silly games.

It all began when Liam, a tall figure with long mousey brown hair all swept to the one side approached the bar. He had a charming, yet innocent smile and a child-like look permanently glued to his face. He nearly always wore the same thing, a band t-shirt and skinny jeans. He ordered some beers for himself and his friends when he noticed a woman with beautiful bright red hair staring at an empty wine glass. She let out a small sigh as a tear fell from her eye. She quickly wiped it away and Liam became curious.

"Hey, are you okay?" he asked. She looked up at him and he noticed the woman was crying a little heavier than he first thought. Before she could answer, Liam spoke again, "Silly question, you're clearly not okay. What are you drinking, m'love? I'll buy you one, you look like you need it." He gestured to her empty glass with his head and awaited a reply.

"That's okay, you don't need to buy me a drink, don't waste your money on me" the redhead answered trying to force a smile and hold back her tears. She looked into Liam's dark brown eyes as he cocked an eyebrow.

"I insist! I know when I'm upset a drink and good company is all I need to help me cheer up. You're far too pretty to be crying anyways. So, what are you drinking?"

"Really, it's okay. No offence or anything, you seem lovely, but I just got out of a very heavy relationship and I'm not looking for anything right now, I'm sorry."

"Haven't you ever heard of chivalry? I'm not trying to get you into bed, don't worry, I have a girlfriend." Liam chuckled a little but seeing the unimpressed look on Chloe's face he decided to change the tone a little. "I'm sorry to hear that though, is that why you're upset? What happened if you don't mind me asking?"

Chloe turned to face him. Maybe a stranger was the best person to talk to. They have no reason to be biased unlike your best friend who normally just tells you what you want to hear, which is nice but sometimes not what you _need_ to hear. Sometimes you need to cold hard truth. She let out a sigh and began the story.

"An hour ago I came home to my now ex-boyfriend sleeping with his best friend in our bed. He started shouting saying I 'never cared' and this is 'all my fault' that he did this. I can't even say I'm surprised, I knew he loved her. I just didn't think the end would happen like this and now I'm here. That's the short version anyway. There's a lot in between but that's the main bit."

Liam looked deep in thought. After a few seconds he readjusted his seat to face the girl. "It seems he wasn't wrong when he doubted your feelings. Not to seem rude, but you really don't sound to heartbroken about the fact you have just ended things, more so that it ended the way it did. The fact you knew he loved someone else but ignored it was the giveaway. However, he sounds like a complete cockwomble. No one should ever cheat, regardless of the situation." Liam took a sip of his beer and looked over at his friends who were engrossed in conversation before looking back at Chloe and continuing. "What's your name? I completely forgot to ask."

"Chloe. Chloe Beale. And you are?"

"Liam Jones, at your service!" he stated looking at her with a wide grin. "So, Chloe, Chloe Beale, where are you from?"

"Atlanta, born and raised. What about you? You're clearly not from around here judging by that accent but I cannot for the life of me figure it out."

Liam chuckled, "I'm from Wales! Llandudno, to be precise. You telling me you've never met a Welsh person before? I'm shocked!"

"No, never! That's in the UK, right? I've always wanted to visit. It looks beautiful. But what brings you to the States?" Chloe smiled at him, he seemed really nice. It was refreshing talking to someone who actually seemed like they were genuinely interested in you and not just praying on your vulnerability just to try and get you to have sex.

"Yeah, it's in the UK" he said giggling to himself. He was used to Americans not knowing Wales even existed. "But trust me, the UK isn't all it's cracked up to be. If you do ever go, go to England and stay in London, in the city centre, that way it won't ruin your nice vision of England you have in your head. Travel any further north and you'll wonder why anyone even lives there." Chloe laughed as Liam continued. "I'm here to see a friend, mainly, she moved out here for work a few years ago. We're crashing at her house for a few months and in the meantime she's helping us crack into the music business."

"We?" Chloe questioned looking very puzzled.

"Yeah, I play bass in a band, we're all out tonight. We only landed here yesterday and everyone's dying to see what the bar scene is like," he said pointing over to the group of guys sat at a table. All of which with a similar dress sense to Liam. "Why don't you come join us? You need to have some fun to get that frown off your face and what's more fun than hanging out with someone as awesome as me?" he said smiling his best smile with all his teeth showing.

"Okay, sure, why not? But I can't stay too late, it's Sunday and I start a new job in the morning." Chloe said getting up from her stool. She helped Liam carry some of the beers to the guys and sat down while they all introduced themselves. They all instantly fell in love with her after hearing her favourite band was A Day to Remember, a band they all loved and one of the many that inspired their dream to become a band and even had a role in helping them develop their own style.

A few hours later and many, many drinks later, the bar was about to close but they we're all having a great time, too drunk to care what time it was. None of them were ready to stop drinking yet, they wanted to carry on their buzz but being a Sunday, nowhere was open. It was then one of the guys, TJ, a short guy with short blue hair suggested they all pile in a cab and go back to the house for drinking games and more 'banter' as he put it. They all quickly agreed and began their journey while singing along to some music TJ played out in the cab.

They pulled up at a seemingly large house and Chloe stepped out in awe, never venturing to this part of town before now. It was a nice neighbourhood, trees littered the winding street and all of the houses seemed quaint. Liam stumbled out of the car after paying the driver and made his way to the front door letting everyone in. He looked around the side of the house looking for a sign anyone was home. There wasn't any. He took out his phone and noticed the time was nearly 12:30am. _Where is she?_ He thought to himself before walking inside.

"Hey, anyone know where Beca is?"

"Who's Beca?" Chloe asked.

"She's the absolute babe that owns the place and is letting us crash here" Joe spoke up. "No, I've not actually seen her since we've been here, which is weird, normally she makes a little more effort to see my beautiful face," he said placing his hand under his chin before attempting a cute smile and fluttering his eyelids.

"Dude, never gonna happen and you know it," Liam laughed as he playfully punched Joe in the arm.

"You never know! She might wake up one morning and realise her undying love for me!" Joe blurted out, too drunk to care what the other guys thought. They all knew he had a crush on their friend but pretended not to so that Joe didn't feel awkward. He crossed the kitchen to the cupboard where all the alcohol was kept and helped himself to the vodka, grabbed some mixers out of the fridge before slumping down on one of the many chairs scattered around the large table. The others followed and Liam grabbed some shot glasses and placed them on the table and started to chat with everyone.

A few minutes had passed and TJ became impatient, really wanting to play some drinking games. "What do we play first?" he shouted banging his fist on the table in excitement.

Suddenly a voice came from the doorway that everyone but Chloe recognised. "Oi, break my table, I'll break you" the voice warned. They all turned to see the short brunette standing in the doorway with her arms full of paperwork and a serious look on her face. They all jumped up and screamed "BECA!" in unison before rushing to the short girl tackling her to the ground with hugs and ruffling her hair.

"We missed you so much!" TJ said still hugging the girl. He was still lying on top of her long after all the others got up. Chris picked his friend up off Beca and sat him down on a chair.

"Nothing's changed then, TJ still can't hold his own when drinking with you guys, huh?" Beca said whilst pulling herself up from the ground, smiling at the sight of her friend playing with his own fingers. He was so drunk, they were all certain they'd have a crying TJ by the end of the night but didn't care. It'd been over a year since they all saw Beca so the guys swamped her with questions about what had been happening while they had been absent. Chloe stayed sat in her seat, unsure of what to say. She didn't know the woman and felt a little awkward. After all, she was in her house with people she barely knew, who wouldn't feel awkward?

"Oh, where are my manners? Beca, this is Chloe!" Liam said finally breaking the tension a little for Chloe. Beca hadn't even noticed he sat in the corner of the room, she remained rather quiet and Beca had been preoccupied with the questions being flung at her. She looked over to where Chloe was sitting and just smiled. Chloe smiled back at Beca. She felt weird. Not a bad weird, but weird all the same. Something about the smile made her stomach flip and she didn't know why. _Maybe it was the alcohol?_ She thought to herself. _Or maybe I'm just nervous? Wait, why am I nervous?_

Beca took off her jacket and placed it on the back of her chair to reveal her cropped band shirt and copious amounts of tattoos on her arms and stomach before fishing into the pocket for a pack of cigarettes. She offered them around the table and everyone took one, including Chloe. "They're menthol, I hope you don't mind," Beca stated as Chloe lit the end of hers.

Chloe locked their eyes and smiled. "That's fine by me, I prefer menthols. They're not has harsh on your throat." She noticed how the colour in her eyes was a deep blue before something distracted her and she looked away. _There's that flip again, what is going on with me?!_ Beca giggled and lit her cigarette before downing a few shots.

"I guess I have to play catch up don't I?" she said in between shots. "What are you guys playing?"

"Ooooh! Let's never have I ever! It'll give us a bit of a chance to see what type of person Chloe is and she can get to know us a bit better," Chris said rather excitedly. They all nodded in agreement and poured some shots for the inevitable questions the guys would ask to try and get each other as drunk as possible. "Who's gonna go first?" Chris asked.

TJ's hand flew up. "Me! Never have I ever had sex in a public place."

"So it's that type of game is it? Why does it always have to be so dirty with you guys?" Beca questioned as she and some of the guys took shots, Chloe included. They all looked at Chloe shocked at the fact the redhead had done such a thing. She looked far too innocent to have done something like that.

"Never have I ever kissed a woman," Chris stated smirking at Beca with an evil glint in his eye. Beca glared at him as she took her shot along with all of the other men there (except Chris). Beca noticed Chloe about to take the shot but decided against it at the last second, not thinking anyone saw. She decided to not quiz her on it, I mean, they'd only had a one conversation and it wasn't exactly a big one. She didn't feel comfortable prying into the girl's personal life, well, not yet anyway. She wasn't drunk enough for that.

"I see where this is going, it's a 'let's all get Beca wasted so she can't function' type of game. Fine, but you know I can out drink all of you." She said sitting back on her chair. She glanced over at Chloe who was looking down at her drink smiling. The girl was beginning to intrigue her more than she cared to admit. She ran her hands through her hair, adjusting it as she did so.

"Your turn, Beca," Chris said still with that stupid smirk on his face. It almost seemed like he was up to something other than trying to get Beca drunk.

"Hmm, never have I ever gotten aroused at the sexual health clinic," she said looking to Chris with a simple 'fuck you' kind of smile.

"That was one time and he was really fucking cute and touching me in places, okay?!" Chris practically screamed going bright red as he did so. He picked up his shot and downed it in one. Everyone around the table looked at him with wide eyes before Chloe burst out laughing, setting everyone else off into a fit of giggles. Beca smiled at Chloe who was currently crying with laughter. Liam looked over at Beca and waited for her to clock on that he was looking at her. When she averted her gaze from Chloe's smile and looked around the guys wondering if anyone caught her staring, she noticed Liam looking at her with a smile on his face. She instantly knew what he was smiling at and mouthed the word 'no' at him. He chuckled to himself and looked back at Chloe who was still laughing and joining in with the teasing. It was a stark contrast to what he saw earlier at the bar and was glad she was finally smiling. He was really starting to like the redhead, she was growing on him quite quickly and he knew the guys all liked her too, including Beca.

Beca's phone began to ring and she stepped outside the room to take the call. Chloe stood up to ask where the bathroom was before creeping out the room, not to disturb Beca's phone call. She was just washing her hands before she heard the door open. She quickly turned to see Beca jump out of her skin, not realising there was anyone in there. "You gave me a heart attack, Red! Why didn't you lock the door?" she shouted, trying to be serious but the smile on her face gave her away that she was only joking.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," Chloe said while drying her hands off. She turned to face Beca who was still smiling at her. "What are you smiling at?"

Beca felt the heat coming off her cheeks and struggled to think of what to say. She really didn't know what to say, she didn't quite know why she was smiling, she just was. She'd always been socially awkward around women, especially pretty women, even before she came out. She didn't want girls to think she was coming on to them. She had a fair few homophobic comments thrown at her in high school by girls who she was just trying to be friendly to and it made her not want to talk to them so she just avoided women in general unless they spoke to her first.

"Umm, n-nothing," she looked down at her feet still not being able to wipe the smile off her face. She looked up and met Chloe's eyes. They were the most beautiful things Beca had ever seen, they were a shade of blue that she never thought existed when it came to eye colour. It was definitely unique. "I umm, I saw you go to take a shot a Chris' question but you backed out."

"Oh," Chloe wasn't quite expecting that question. She didn't know anyone saw what she did. "Uh, yeah, umm, well… I nearly have, I wanted to _so_ bad, I mean she was really cute and I'd always been curious but just before we did, I backed out. I had a boyfriend at the time and although I wanted to, I couldn't do that to Tom. So it just never went ahead," Chloe looked down at the floor, "I still want to but you know how it is, I couldn't exactly just go up to a girl and say 'hey! Wanna make out?' that'd be really strange. What if they didn't even like girls? I'd look like a bit of a weirdo"

"Yeah, but you seem like the strange type. I mean, not in a bad way, I like strange. I mean, you seem like an interesting character, shy yet bubbly with random spouts of confidence. I guess I just can't figure you out. Is what I'm trying to say, I don't know" Beca started to stumble on her words not knowing herself what she was trying to say. Chloe giggled and at the shorter girl as she nervously played with her ear stretcher.

"It's okay, I roughly get what you're trying to say."

"I'm sorry, I just… I'm not very good at talking to women, especially pretty ones such as yourself," Beca stated looking down at her shoes still smiling away before looking back up and locking gazes.

Chloe blushed furiously. _Is Beca coming on to me?_ She thought to herself as she lent back onto the sink trying to read the girls mind. She flickered her gaze down to Beca's lips, just for a second. _What would her lips taste like? Would they be soft or would it just be like kissing a guy? Ugh, what is going on with me?_ She looked straight back up hoping it went unnoticed.

It didn't.

Beca trapped her bottom lip in between her teeth trying to hide a massive grin appearing on her face. _Who is this girl?_

Chloe peeked down again at Beca's lips and seeing her bite them drover her insane. _Fuck it, I probably won't ever even see this girl again, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Who knows, you might like it._

Before she could think anymore she suddenly felt Beca close the gap between them and pressed her lips against hers. Not knowing what else to do, she slowly kissed her back. She wasn't exactly going to push her off her, who would? Beca was more attractive than anyone Chloe had ever seen before in her life, she'd have to be stupid to turn this down. Beca, growing in confidence with each second that passed intensified the kiss getting more and more curious to where this could lead. Chloe gently hummed against Beca's lips as the pair continued. Beca gently bit Chloe's bottom lip before sucking it a little and pulling away, leaving the redhead in a dream-like state. She didn't know what just happened, or why it happened but she didn't want to think about that now. She just wanted to stay in the moment with Beca a little longer.

"Chloe? Are you okay in there? You've been gone ages! And where's Beca?" She was quickly snapped out of her daydream by the sound of Joe shouting down the hallway to her. "Come on, you two, we wanna finish the game!"

Chloe looked at Beca and smiled before leaving the bathroom to go back to the game as Beca followed. They both sat down with sheepish grins on their faces and that did not go unnoticed by Liam. Beca would have some explaining to do in the morning that was for sure.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

The sun shone in through a crack in the curtains and exposed part of the living room floor where an extremely hungover redhead lay just awaking from one of the most unusual nights of her life. In the twenty-six years Chloe had been alive, she had never done anything like this. She sat up slowly so that her head didn't spin too much and took in the surroundings. She was in a large room with two stylish couches on either side of the wall, each with two snoring men upon them. She got up and on to her feet as she tried to recollect the events of the night previous. Everything past the incident in the bathroom with the homeowner was a massive blur. Chloe took out her phone to check the time. "Of course, it's dead, great," she muttered to no one in particular. She looked down at her clothes and much to her surprise; they didn't look too bad considering she slept on the floor. She straightened out her blouse and brushed her pants off from unwanted bits of fluff and dust before heading into the kitchen for some much needed coffee.

She assumed that since she hadn't paid for a single drink herself since she met Liam, that they wouldn't mind her helping herself to some coffee granules and some hot water. She walked into the kitchen and straight to the kettle to find it already boiling.

"You look pretty good considering the amount you drank last night," a voice from the corner of the room spoke. Chloe turned to see Beca sat on the edge of the counter top swinging her short legs to and fro with copious amounts of documentation piled in her hands and across the work surface. "I assume you had a good night though?" She asked returning to reading over her work and munching on some fruit.

Chloe couldn't help staring at the sight in front of her with her mouth slightly open. This was a stark contrast from what she saw last night. Last night she saw this little alt girl with this dark and mysterious aura about her that was intimidating yet incredibly sexy. This girl was intimidating yet sexy as well but in a completely different way. Beca was sat in what she would normally wear to the office, a simple blouse, tight black pencil skirt with tights to match, small black heels, brown locks curled to perfection falling down over her shoulders and some light make-up. "Umm, yeah, I had a fun night actually. Well, I assume I did, I don't remember an awful lot," Chloe finally spoke up. Nervousness clearly making its presence known in her voice. "Do you have the time?" she asked pouring herself a coffee.

"8:38" Beca replied and no sooner had she said it, coffee started pouring from the mug that was now lying on it's side down onto the wooden floor.

"Shit! I-I'm late! So late! What am I going to do? Oh my God, I'm screwed. I've waited so long for this opportunity and now it's blown! I'll never make it I don't even know where I am, how am I going to even get there, I can't turn up looking like this, I-"

"-Whoa, Red. Calm down a second. Breathe. What are you late for?"

Chloe was now pacing up and down the kitchen, breathing heavily and running her hands over her face and through her hair, clearly on the verge of tears.

"I-I was supposed to start this internship today at this record company, Capitol Records. I'm supposed to be there at 9:30. I've been trying for years to

work my way into the music industry. I've been trying ever since I left college but I've had no luck. This was supposed to be my break, this was a chance to work with real producers, real artists and get my name out there, even if it was just as admin work or going on coffee runs. But that's all gone down the toilet now, hasn't it? Ugh, why can't I do anything right? I shouldn't have drank so much, I'm such an idiot," she paused her self-loathing for a second as she watched Beca move from the counter and go through her purse on the table. She threw a small make-up bag in Chloe's direction.

"There's soap in the bathroom, go wash up. You're too tall to be able to fit into any of my pants but I might have some shirts you can borrow. Meet me upstairs in 5 minutes; it's the second door to your left. Oh, and come back with a more positive attitude, I don't think the people at Capitol will appreciate an intern that is not only late but stuck in a bad mood all day either. Now, go, hurry up, clock's ticking." Chloe looked at Beca with mixed emotions spread across her face, confusion and gratitude being the main ones present. She didn't have time to question why the girl was being so nice to her, they didn't know each other, she didn't owe her anything, but this was an issue for a later time. Right now, she needed to do as she was told so she could hopefully still make it to her job. She couldn't afford to mess this up. She needed this job. This was the job that would finally shut her parents up and prove to them she can do what she loved and get paid for it too. She bounded into the bathroom and began to attempt to make herself look less dead to the world.

She arrived in Beca's room 5 minutes later as instructed and a coffee was thrust into her hands. "Drink this, pick a shirt, get changed and we'll go, okay?" Beca questioned.

"Okay," that was all Chloe managed to reply before Beca left the room abruptly.

Beca made her way down the stairs and into the living room where the boys, besides one, were all still fast asleep. Deciding to deal with them all later about the state they let Chloe get into after she went to bed. She turned to her best friend and exhaled. "I'm going to work, try and get some of your own work done, yeah? Your meeting is at 3 o'clock on Wednesday and I can't help you guys if you aren't prepared for it, okay?" Liam smiled at his friend. God, she couldn't be bossy even if she tried. He nodded and stood up stretching his arms above his head before pulling Beca into him for a hug. "Dude, you stink of sweat, beer and pure ethanol."

"You love it," Liam replied squeezing her tighter as she tried to wiggle away. "Stop resisting my love! I know deep down you want this hug!" he shouted loudly, not really caring id he woke the others up or not. Beca pulled herself away from the hug and stood back glaring at her friend. "How come you're going to work this early anyway? I didn't think you needed to be in 'til at least lunch time-," he trailed off as another person joined them in the room, red hair flowing effortlessly down her back, dressed in on of Beca's many work shirts and actually looking presentable despite a raging hangover. "Morning sunshine!" he sang as he beamed a great big smile at her.

"Good morning," she smiled back at him.

"Dude, we gotta go, I'm giving Chloe a ride to work because someone, not mentioning any names, Liam, managed to get her so drunk she forgot about how she was going to get to work today. So, I'll call you later, please tidy the house, this place is a mess." Liam mocked a salute then waved his best friend and the quite, yet somehow, loveable stranger out of the door.

Chloe was the first one to break the silence on the ride there. They'd been sat there swimming in the awkwardness for at least 10 minutes and enough was enough. "I'm sorry about last night by the way."

"What are you sorry for?" Beca turned to face Chloe as she spoke before returning to focusing on driving.

"I don't know, everything I guess," she sighed. "I mean you have no idea who I am, you just come home to find a stranger in your house, then we got incredibly drunk and well, you know. Then I end up late for work making you come out of your way to drive me. I'd understand if you were pissed at me, I know I would be in your position."

Beca remained silent for a minute, thinking of what to say next. Yes, the girl was right, she probably should be annoyed, but she wasn't. She liked the woman, she was nice and there was just something about her that made her want to know more. _Who is this girl?_ It was that same thinking that got Liam interested in her enough to let her hang out with them. Liam was a good guy but was very selective about his friends, probably why Beca didn't question her presence at her house as much as she should have. She trusted Liam's judgement of people. But that still didn't answer her question. One that she had repeated in her head many times over the last 8 hours.

"I'm not pissed at you," she finally spoke up. "How do you know the guys?"

"Umm, I don't really know them. Well. I do, but I don't at the same time. I was in a bar across town last night and I was pretty upset so I was knocking back the drinks and then Liam and I started talking. He invited me to come sit with him and the guys, we all hit it off and next thing I know, I'm being convinced to come to a house for more drinks."

"Little Welsh bastard sure is convincing isn't he? I blame the accent."

Chloe chuckled lightly, "yeah, he is. How do you know them?"

"We all went to school together. Liam was dating my best friend, Stacie, still is by the way, and he had just started the band with TJ. Later Chris and Joe joined and somehow convinced me to join too. I gave it up though when I started working after high school but the guys really wanted to make it a career, so they travelled a bit and now have a bit of a name for themselves overseas. Mainly Europe. However, we stayed friends through it all and we're all still going strong." Beca smiled as she spoke about her friends. Yeah, they'd seen some shit and been through the wars together but now they were all living comfortably and loving life. "Why were you upset if you don't mind me asking?"

"Uhh, long story short, my boyfriend cheated on me. We were on the verge of breaking up anyway but that didn't stop it hurting. I decided to take myself out and have my first drink of alcohol. That's what people do when they're upset right? Drink?"

"You've never drank booze before last night?!" Beca all but shouted in dismay. "How does someone get into their twenties without drinking?"

"I come from a religious family," she spoke quietly. "I was scared of what my dad would do if he found out that I'd tried alcohol, so I stayed away from it."

"Wow," Beca breathed "must have been a rough day if you defied your dad."

"You could say that. I guess I just was sick of living in this lifestyle and get nothing but hurt in return."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, my dad told us we must follow every word of the bible but it's full of contradictions. God teaches us that we must love everyone, but he also tells us we must hate certain people. Hate the gays; hate the adulaters and the whores but also to love thy neighbour. Sometimes your neighbour is the so-called sinner, does that mean you should love them or hate them? Who knows? It's a whole lot of hypocrisy, I put up with it because I thought it was the right thing to do, but all it did was push me away from my dad and Tom got annoyed at my dad trying to dictate our lives even though it was my dad who set us up and I got sick of everything kicking off. My dad won't talk to me anymore because he hates Tom, Tom's just an asshole and I got stuck in the middle wondering what I did to deserve the men in my life to be douche bags." A wave of silence swept through the car. Beca had no idea what to say to that. "Sorry, I sort of went off on one there."

"It's okay. I'm sorry you went through that. It sounds like you had it rough."

Chloe hummed in agreement and began to hum away to the radio and Beca couldn't help but smile at how quickly the redhead's attitude changed. She was obviously a naturally happy person who'd had some bad luck but she didn't let it get to her. Beca thought she probably would have blown her brains out by now if she didn't have the option to drink when she was sad. She couldn't imagine what it must have been like for Chloe who must have been put under a lot of stress to be exactly what her father wanted her to be.

They sat alternating between humming along to whatever was on the radio and gentle silence for the short remainder of the journey as they came around the corner to reveal a tall, modern building (as they all were in New York City). They pulled up into the underground car park and walked in. Chloe was unsure why Beca was following her into the elevator but kept quite, she didn't want to be rude after the girl had just probably saved her job. Saying that, she was still 7 minutes late, she shouldn't get her hopes up just yet. She pushed the button for the 22nd floor, the one below the managerial offices.

"Chloe, I wanna ask you about last night." Beca spoke up once the door had shut. "I want you to know I'm sorry, about what happened in the bathroom, I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable or anything, I just, I don't know there's something about you that just makes me want to get to know you, not to mention you're ridiculously pretty and-" Her words were cut off by a chaste kiss placing itself on her lips. It was short, but sweet. Chloe stepped back and locked eyes with the brunette who was still trying to overcome the initial shock of the kiss. Nothing else was said during the rest of the time spent in the elevator, just sideways glances here and there, blushing and a whole lot of smiling.

They reached the floor that the receptionist had told them to go to and Beca stepped out with Chloe. "You know, you didn't have to come all this way with me," Chloe piped up breaking their silence. Beca chuckled under her breath and turned to Chloe smiling.

"True, but who else is going to get you off the hook with Mr. Allen?"

"Huh?" Chloe became very confused, very quickly. She watched as Beca walked past her and through into the office in front of them.

"Good morning Mr. Allen, I have a new intern for you here, I know she's a bit late but she obviously got herself a bit lost on her way up here. You know how this place is; it's like a maze. I think she's lucky I found her before she ended up in Narnia or something." Beca stepped further into the office and gestured the redhead to enter. Chloe slowly moved into the office to see a man in his late twenties sat at a desk with two others stood parallel to him. Other interns, she had assumed. Mr. Allen was a well-built man with short brown hair. He had this hard-ass demeanour about him that Chloe picked up on instantly. A question popped into her head, one that Beca had been frequently asking herself, also. _Who is this girl?_

"That's not a problem, Miss Mitchell. I was just about to call her and tell her not to bother showing if she can't show up on time. However, I think we can make an exception just this once. Make sure it doesn't happen again, Miss Beale," Mr. Allen looked at her with a stern face, clearly holding back wanting to lay into her. He wasn't the nicest of guys but in Beca's eyes, he got the job done. "I was just running over duties you'll be carrying out while you're here with the other interns. Since you are already acquainted with the boss, you can take the top floor and speak to Miss Posen who will go over with you what will be expected of you up there."

Chloe turned to look at Beca who was all of a sudden was nowhere to be found. She turned back to Mr. Allen and thanked him before practically running out of the office to search for the woman. She caught sight of her re-entering the elevator and ran to try and catch it, heels clicking on the hardwood floor as she did so. She stopped just before the doors to look at the brunette who was sporting a small smirk while looking at her feet. Beca looked up to meet Chloe's eyes and her smile grew. Chloe couldn't quite comprehend what had just happened. "You're the CEO?" She questioned, still in disbelief. The doors started to close and Beca let out a small giggle, winking at the redhead before the doors finally shut leaving Chloe stood on the other side, mouth slightly agape.

"Shit."


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Hi guys, sorry about the unusual updates, I work shifts and struggle to write in between. I promise I try to write as much as possible but every time I go back to a chapter I started working on, I end up chopping and changing bits. I should probably get myself someone to help me out with all that and tell me if my chapters actually need changing in the first place :')**

 **By the way, thank you for the follows, 65 on my first two chapters, guys!**

 **Here's the next chapter! Not a lot going on here but we do find out a little more about Chloe's character. If you like it or hate it, a review would be fabulous! Also, let me know if you would all prefer smaller chapters but more frequent updates or longer chapters with less frequent updates. Peace out.**

Chapter Three

Chloe wasn't sure how long she stood staring at the doors of the elevator, but she was certain it was probably too long. She stepped forward and pressed the call button, waiting impatiently for the doors to open. She had to talk to Beca. There was no way this was actually happening. The doors opened allowing her inside and she rushed inside hoping no one else would try and hop in and disturb her mini freak-out. The elevator started to move and the freak-out commenced. She didn't know what to think. Beca was her boss. Her boss that she'd kissed. Twice. _How is Beca even that high up? She can't be much older than twenty-four/five. Oh my God, what am I going to do?_ Chloe leant against the mirrored surface of the wall and ran her fingers through her hair in an attempt to keep her cool. _Wait, why does it matter if she's my boss? We barely know each other. Maybe we can just forget what happened and start again. Strictly professional. Ugh, I don't want to forget what happened. Why don't I want to forget what happened? I don't know her. This is so weird._

A noise interrupted Chloe's thought process. It was the doors.

They opened to revel an open room with another reception desk in the middle. There were couches surrounding the edges, presumably for people waiting for meetings. Chloe edged forward out of the elevator and towards the front desk. An older woman with long dark hair sat on the opposite side of the large wooden structure; too busy with whatever it was she was doing on her computer to acknowledge Chloe's presence.

"Umm, hi. I'm Chloe Beale. I'm one of the new interns here. Is Miss Mitchell around, please?"

The receptionist didn't even bother to look up before answering. "Do you have an appointment?"

"No, but-"

"Then she's busy." The lady cut Chloe's sentence off with a deadpan tone.

"I doubt that, I saw her just 2 minutes ago."

Finally looking up at her from her computer, the woman just stared at Chloe. The redhead instantly began to regret questioning this woman.

"Do you know how many people come up here a day wanting to see Miss Mitchell?" Chloe shook her head. "No? It's a lot. She is a busy woman that struggles for find time to entertain a famous artist who will make her a lot of money so I'm very sure she doesn't have the time for an intern. You're not the first intern to come up here to try and get cosy with the boss and I doubt you'll be the last, but you need to know that while you're here, unless Miss Mitchell talks to you, you don't talk to her, okay? Now, are you actually supposed to be up here or did you just think you'd come up here to annoy me?"

Not for the first time today, Chloe stood in shock. Why was everyone being so mean to her?

"Actually, I-"

"Chloe Beale I presume?" A voice came from behind her before she could carry on arguing with the rude receptionist. She turned to see a blonde woman around her age walking towards her, heels clacking on the marble flooring as she did so. She stopped, put out her hand and looked expectantly at the newest intern to grace the floor. Chloe nodded and extended her hand to shake the one placed in between them. "My name is Aubrey Posen, I'm part of the PR team for Miss Mitchell and her clients who I'm sure you've heard of. I deal mostly with the publicity side of things."

Chloe had heard of her, but didn't really feel that telling Aubrey how was the best way to start her first day on the job. Come to think of it, Chloe had heard the name before yesterday. She heard it on the radio all the time when she was driving before some of her favourite songs came on.

"I'm Chloe." She stated, retracting her hand. The blonde raised one eyebrow.

"I know, I did use your name when I greeted you," she said very matter of factly. She observed the redhead a little more closely. "Hmm, nice blouse. I'm sure I've seen it somewhere else though." Chloe's eyes widened. Before she could react, Aubrey spun around, dismissing the thought and motioned for the intern to follow her. "Let me give you the tour."

They entered a small kitchen area as part of the never-ending tour around the labyrinth of halls and offices. How a simple music label needed so many offices, she'll never know. "This is probably where you will spend most of your time," Aubrey stepped into the room to allow Chloe entrance. "Unfortunately, coffee runs are a cross we all must bare as the newbie, but if you plan on staying here a while, you will eventually get moved on to bigger and better things, that I can assure you." She smiled at the redhead who reminded silent and had done for most of the tour. This wasn't uncommon for new starters. They were all very nervous about their jobs due to the highly public nature of the company.

However, Chloe was never the quiet type until a few months ago when she first felt Tom hit her. She always had something to say even if it had absolutely no relevance to anything. She guessed he got sick of her constant rambling, so she stopped because then he wouldn't need to hit her, right? Tom was a good man, a man of God, just like her father. He wouldn't do anything like that unless he needed to, surely? It didn't stop though. It got worse when he started coming home late, smelling like someone else's perfume. In a way, she was glad she caught them red-handed. It gave her the excuse she needed to walk without anyone questioning it.

They carried on the tour until they reached an office with the words "R. Mitchell" engraved on a plaque that hung from the door. Aubrey didn't even knock before entering. They walked into the large office to find the small brunette hunched over something she was writing not even realising anyone had walked in. The room was large but not so much so that it was uninviting. It seemed quite cosy in fact. There was a large desk, which was at the back of the room containing a lot of paperwork, USB sticks and CD cases. There was a large Apple Mac computer screen sat in the middle with coffee cups surrounding the keyboard.

"Beca," Aubrey called. Nothing. Aubrey grunted and walked over to her, pulling one of the girl's earphones out.

"Jesus Bree, way to give a girl a heart attack!" She snapped with her hand to her chest, steadying her breathing from the initial shock that someone was in her personal space. Her eyes glanced to Chloe's body stood in a rather nervous posture. "So, you found me then, Chlo?" She smiled removing the other earphone and putting her pen down to give them both her full attention. Chloe smiled back but didn't say anything.

"You've met?" The blonde questioned raising her eyebrow and darting her eyes between the pair before residing and resting on Chloe.

"Yeah." It was a bit blunt, more blunt than she intended it to come out but she didn't want to give too much away, not knowing how Beca wanted to handle the situation. Aubrey's eyes raced back over to Beca who was alternating between looking at Chloe and down at her desk, smiling and biting her lip, like a teenager with a school girl crush.

"Umm, okay. Well, I don't need to introduce you then. Chloe has been assigned this floor and I think the best option for her is to just be a general assistant until we can hone in on what she's best at and go from there."

Chloe looked over at the blonde with a rather confused expression.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, your resume was impressive, you gave one hell of an interview, you listen well from what I've gathered so far, you seem competent enough and you were sent up here to us. That usually means you show promise. If you prove yourself in any particular field of work, you will be offered a proper position here. However, if you don't you'll either be sent downstairs to cover basic admin work or get the boot, depending on how I'm feeling." Aubrey was the sort of person to sugar-coat anything she said. It was one of the things that made her so good at her job. She took no prisoners when it came to dealing with the media and tabloids. She had stuck by Beca through her rise to inevitable fame and through everything the nosey tabloids threw at her. The way she dealt with it was pure genius. No one else could do a better job than Aubrey Posen herself.

Chloe, for the first time today, actually felt optimistic about her new role her. She knew what he wanted to do and now she knew it was possible to actually get there quicker than she initially thought.

"Okay. Well, where do I start?" She let out a short breath and smiled brightly at the pair.

"Usually we make people start working in certain departments for a few weeks at a time, helping out with admin and general running of the department. After you've gone through all the departments, you'll have a review with some of the managers and we'll decided what roles you were best at and where we see you heading at the company. You'll have a chance to tell us what you would prefer to do, but if we don't think it's best, we wont put you there." Aubrey stated. "We'll start you off in my department I think and then go from there." She looked over at Beca as if seeking her approval only to be met with a face of a girl who was pretending to listen to her. As always, the girl's mind was elsewhere. Usually elsewhere meant somewhere that contained music. Ideas for new tracks, mostly, but this somewhere contained a certain redhead.

Beca nodded at Aubrey. "Whatever you think is best, Bree." She new she was about to get an earful about not paying attention again. She'd had many similar telling offs. Luckily, before the blonde could begin her scolding, Beca's phone rang. She quickly picked it up and held up 2 fingers gesturing for Aubrey to wait.

"Hello? Yes, hi Liam.

-Yes, she's here with me.

-No, Liam I don't know, how would I know her schedual?" There was a small pause.

"You're disgusting." Everyone in the room heard the laughter on the other end of the phone, but not the joke. Thank God. "Why don't you ask her?

-Ugh fine." She held the phone up towards Chloe. "He wants to talk to you." She threw the phone across the room to the girl who carefully caught it and placed it to her ear.

"Hello" she said sounding more apprehensive than probably needed.

"Umm, Thursday? Probably nothing, why? Uhh, yeah, sure. Only if that's okay with Beca, obviously. Do you want me to pass you back to her? Okay, I'll get her to text it to you, bye." She hung up the phone and walked to the desk placing down the phone and picking up a pen to write down her number. "Liam wants you to text him that and that he'll talk to you about it later." She passed the piece of paper to Beca who took it and quickly sent Liam the text, not before saving the number into her own phone.

"I have somewhere I need to be, so I'll catch up with you later, Bree."

"No, no, no, what am I missing?" Aubrey interrupted, unsure of what to make of the situation.

"Not a lot, discussion for another time though. I really do have to be somewhere." She opened the door and craned her neck over her shoulder to look at Chloe.

"Welcome to Capitol, Miss Beale," she said with a wink and left the two in the room as she paced down the corridor.

Aubrey glared at Chloe. "Tell me everything. Now."

The redhead gulped.


	4. Chapter 4

_**AN: Thank you for all your support guys! As always, remember to review even if you hated it, I'm a big girl, and I can take the criticism.**_

 _ **To answer a guest review: I know it's weird that Aubrey and Chloe aren't friends in this fic. Beca and Aubrey are supposed to be close friends but we shall see if she warms up to Chloe later on…**_

 _ **Sorry if there's any mistakes. I blame that pesky 3**_ _ **rd**_ _ **glass of wine I've consumed while writing this for them.**_

 _ **Anyway, here's chapter 4, enjoy!**_

Chapter 4

"There's nothing to tell!" If her panicking wasn't made obvious enough by her lack of eye contact or sweaty palms, the defensive high-pitched tone hammered the last nail into the coffin that she's sure the blonde was going to put her in. Chloe shifted towards the door in the hope that if she needed a quick get away, she had a fighting chance of running before Aubrey caught her.

"Miss Beale, may I suggest something?" The blonde's voice softened to an almost patronising tone. "Don't _ever_ lie to me. It will not get you far." She put as sternly as she could. "Now, as Miss Mitchell's publicist, it is my job to know everything so I can control what gets into the media's hands. If you know her outside of work, chances are going to be that the press knows you know each other outside of work and that is how rumours start. Rumours about the owner and main producer of a large record label and an intern are not good for business. Do you understand what I'm saying to you?"

"I understand," the redhead nodded before continuing, "but I'm not telling you anything."

Fury, rage, aggression, whatever you want to call it seemed to wash over Aubrey's facial features and Chloe could have sworn she saw steam coming out of her ears. "And why is that?" Aubrey's voice was surprisingly calm considering the circumstances.

Chloe took in a deep breath. She wasn't sure if she'd regret this or not but she figured she'd rather have no job and her morals intact that a job and no morals at all, even if that meant losing the closest opportunity to her dream job. "Because whatever is going on or is not going on between Beca and I is just that; between Beca and I, not anyone else." She paused to take another deep breath before continuing. "You have my word that I will not go to the press with whatever it is you think is going on. I'll even sign something to say I won't if that makes you feel more comfortable about the situation. However, if you really have to know, you'll have to ask Beca. If Beca wants you to know, let her tell you. However, you won't hear it from me, it's not my place to say anything. I don't have a reputation to uphold, she does."

Aubrey stood contemplating for a few moments before speaking up. "I will speak to Miss Mitchell and when I get it out of her-"

"-if" Chloe interjected with a small smirk on her face.

" _When_ I get it out of her, if I deem this situation something that needs controlling, you _will_ be signing something to make sure you keep it to yourselves. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes ma'am." Chloe replied with a mock salute. Trying to defuse the tension with light humour was not necessarily the best idea she had ever had in her life but that was Chloe. Well, it was who she used to be pre-Tom, but she couldn't help herself. She smiled internally. It felt good not having to worry.

"Don't be facetious." The blonde exited the room and gestured to the redhead to get her to follow. Chloe kept quite and followed her with that internal smile slowly surfacing until it became plastered across her face.

Aubrey left Chloe in an office with a young guy, Benji, to work on some general admin for the PR team. Aubrey had to know what was going on. It was her job, not only as Beca's publicist but as her friend as well. She strode into the top floor reception area to find the receptionist just sat filing her nails. _Ugh, that woman._ Aubrey thought to herself. She cleared her throat to try and get her to at least look up. She didn't though. "She's in the studio." The older woman put her file down and started tapping away at the computer. _Eye contact would have been nice_.Aubrey rolled her eyes and made her way to Beca's personal studio on the next floor down.

Without even knocking, the blonde walked in and marched straight over to where Beca was sitting with her headphones on bopping her head to a beat she was blatantly creating. In one swift move, the blonde ripped the headphones off and spun the tiny DJ around to face her.

"Dude!" Beca shouted unable to grasp the reality of what Aubrey had just done. She broke the one rule Beca had set when she gave her best friend the job. "No touchy the headphones! Not cool!" She glared up at the woman as if she had just done something completely unforgivable. She soon toned down her scolding look upon seeing the equally pissed off face of her friend. Normally, she wouldn't back down from a glare-off, but Aubrey's look was terrifying to say the least. "S'up?" she asked. She wasn't really sure she wanted to know what had annoyed her that much but asked all the same.

"You and Chloe. Explain, now." Aubrey folded her arms and continued her soul-piercing stare.

"There's nothing to explain, Bree. Nothing happened."

"Don't bullshit me, the ginger tried that one and I didn't believe her either. Bec, I need to know, not because I'm your friend, but because I'm your publicist."

"Wait. You grilled Red about this?" Beca questioned. "Oh God, tell me you didn't go all Posen on her and scare her out of the building."

"I did grill her, I did go all Posen on her."

"Shit. Bree why-"

"-But she didn't leave. She stood her ground." She sounded defeated but in all honesty? She really admired the seemingly shy woman for actually respecting Beca's privacy.

"Wow. She did? Man, who knew that little ginger had it in her." Beca was definitely impressed. "What did she say exactly?"

"She told me whatever happened was between you and her and if I wanted to know, then I needed to ask you because I wasn't going to hear any part of it from her."

Beca's mouth curled into a James Dean styled smirk. "Really?"

"Yes, Beca, really. Now, instead of just looking like a love-struck teenager, tell me what happened. How do you know her?"

"That's the thing, Bree, I don't know her. Not really anyways. We met last night, she was randomly in my kitchen when I got home, I-"

"-what do you mean she was in your kitchen?!" The blonde interrupted.

"Liam's visiting."  
"Say no more. Carry on."

"Yeah, we were all drinking and playing a few games. It was nice, she didn't recognise me. At least, I don't think she did, she might have and just been too polite to say anything but either way, it felt good. There was no pressure to be Ms. Mitchell or DJ Lil' Mitch. I just got to be Beca for the evening."

Aubrey knew how hard it was for Beca to make friends outside of work. She always had people pretending to be her friends for her money, or the fame. It was hard on her and took its toll. The smaller "Okay, I get it. But what else, that's not all that happened, if it had, the redhead wouldn't have been so defensive."

Beca turned bright red. She didn't plan on telling Aubrey but there was something about this girl that made her want to scream from the roof tops that she was lucky enough to have even been in the same room with such a beautiful girl. She didn't want Aubrey stressing over anything because last night she was certain she wouldn't even see Chloe again. But that all went tits up at about 8:45am this morning when she realised where she'd be working. Swallowing whatever moisture was left in her dry mouth, Beca finally spoke up. "Umm, we sort of maybe kissed." She braced herself for the shit-storm that was about to hit her. There was a pause. There was no shit-storm. There was just Aubrey still stood over her only now the blonde was trying to contain a smile. "You're not yelling, why aren't you yelling?" The smaller girl couldn't quite get her head around why she wasn't being yelled at for her carelessness. She'd been burnt once or twice before by women who were just using her but Aubrey could tell just as well as Beca that there was something about the ginger that made her think maybe she doesn't have ulterior motives.

"I'm not going to yell, I don't need to. I trust your judgement, but please, just please be careful. Not for the label's sake, but for your sake. I don't want to see you hurt." Beca breathed a sigh of relief. "She's signing a confidence agreement though to keep her quiet just in case."

The brunette just rolled her eyes. "Whatever, just don't be mean to her about it and make it seem like I don't trust her."

Aubrey folded her arms. "She suggested it to me, Beca. She said she had no interest in tarnishing your name." With that, she left the room and left Beca to her thoughts.

Beca wasn't sure what to think. Was Chloe really thinking about her or did she just not want people to know that they had kissed? Was she embarrassed about it? Ashamed even? She did just break up with her boyfriend and her family was religious from what she'd told her. Was she just an easy rebound target? She sure hoped not. However, never underestimate the power of the brain's ability to over-think things. Maybe she should just talk to Chloe and be straight with her (if you pardon the pun). That seemed like the best option right now. She finished up the song she was working on and grabbed her coffee cup from the side before making her way back up to the top floor and to Chloe.

She stopped outside the door to a sight that made her smile more so than she'd care to admit. Chloe was sat at a desk with Benji, typing away whilst having what looked like a funny conversation about whatever random thing came into her head. She looked relaxed. A lot more relaxed than she had done all day and it was nice to see. Her teeth peeked through her smiling lips every time Benji made a joke (or tried to, Beca wouldn't exactly call him a connoisseur of comedy), her hair was just perfectly sitting on her shoulders, flowing as she moved her head to talk and those eyes, my God those beautifully blue eyes just sparkled. She was stood outside the door for what seemed like a few seconds to her but in reality, was more like 2-3 minutes, just watching the redhead.

Aubrey came down the corridor nursing a cup of coffee that she had just made on route to get back to her office. She stopped just as she was on her way back to see Beca leaning on a doorframe just looking into another office space. She peeked over the oblivious Beca to see what she was looking at. _Of course, Chloe._ She thought to herself. The blonde cleared her throat to get her attention. She found herself doing a lot of that today. Beca turned to find her friend stood next to her with one eyebrow raised.

"She's going to end up suing you for harassment you know if you keep staring at her like that. What are you doing up here anyway? Shouldn't you be working on your new piece?"

Beca sighed. "I know I should but Bree, she's just so pretty." She said in a whinny child-like voice. "I can't concentrate and after you said about the confidence thing I can't help but think that she regrets kissing me." She shifted her eyes from Aubrey's and began staring at her toes.

"And you thought marching in there on her first day of work, less than 12 hours after you met to ask her if she likes you was your best option?"

"Well, yeah? I mean you know me, Bree. I'm forward. I don't like wasting my time."

"That you are, m'dear. But take some time, neither of you have had time to process anything that's happened. If you think there could be something there, don't rush it. Ask her out. But please, please, please, be careful. I won't appreciate the extra workload I get if you're caught by the paps in some fancy restaurant with your employee. I don't think it'd make her life working here easy either if anyone thinks she's sleeping with the boss."

"I guess you're right." Beca stepped away from the door but not before looking over Chloe's features once more and began her decent back to her studio. Liam would be annoyed if she didn't finish this track for him like she promised all those weeks ago.

Suddenly, a text came through to her phone.

 **From Liam**

 **Sent at 11:14am**

 _ **Yo, Bitch! Chloe's coming Thursday for pizza night. Yes, that's right we're bringing back our high school tradition. Stacie's coming too, btw! Oh, TJ broke a vase and Joe ate all your Poptarts just so you know. Love ya!**_

 _Just like being back at school._ She shook her head and smiled as she continued to touch up the track for her friend.


	5. Chapter 5

_**AN: I know my update times are weird but work is kicking my ass lately. Short update to fill you in a little more about Beca and her relation to the band to keep you all going. The next chapter after this will be the same but for Chloe. I feel you guys need to know a bit more about our two leading ladies before I can continue the story as you probably wouldn't understand much to come. Much loves!**_

Chapter 5

Liam, Joe, TJ and Chris all sat around Beca's desk in her studio at home listening intently to what their best friend had created. They all had smiles on their faces and began to bob their heads signalling that they were getting into the beat. A point in the song came when they heard something they weren't expecting. Beca's vocals replacing some of Joe's along the bridge, melding perfectly with the beat and everyone around the desk became wide-eyed in surprise.

"Well, what do you guys think?" Beca asked chewing the nail on her thumb. Something she'd always done when anxious. There was something missing from the song and it'd been bugging her for weeks. It only hit her today when she was in the studio what it was. The voice wasn't fitting the lyrics, like, at all.

"I wasn't expecting that, bro!" Liam shouted as his grin stretched from ear-to-ear. "I have a few more songs in the pipeline and I really want a female vocalist. I think you'd be great for it! It'll just be like old times again!"

They all began agreeing in unison before all 4 sets of eyes landed on Beca.

"Really? I mean I haven't done anything like this in a while. It's not exactly my style anymore-"

"Feel free to say no." Joe interrupted not wanting the guys to pressure her. He knew how convincing they could be. TJ punched him hard in the arm with an accompanying 'dude, shut up' look.

"No, don't feel free to say no, say yes!" Liam budged her out of her chair, grabbed a USB out of his pocket and plugged it into her MacBook. He opened up a couple of files and began to show her the lyrics he had. Beca scanned them carefully and sat back in thought. They definitely had potential. However, this sort of music wasn't exactly her professional style even though she loved it.

"I don't know, Liam." She began.

"Bec, look at me. I know you want to, I know you miss the band. I'm you're best friend and I know you all too well. If you're worried about what it'll mean for Capitol now you're the boss lady and such, if we do decide to record it, we credit you under a pseudonym. No fucker will know it's the famous 'lil Mitch!" He looked at her, eyes shining with hopefulness. Beca let out a sigh.

"If you guys do well on Wednesday and they want more songs out of you guys, I'll think about it"

"Citizen Smith reunited, bitches!" Chris shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Fuck yeah! Let's go get our drink on!" TJ exclaimed and with that, they we're all out of the door on the way to the nearest place that served alcohol. Beca just smiled as she began to follow. _Seriously, just like high school._

Thursday came around fast enough. The guys had their meeting with some of the bigwigs the day previous and Beca had managed to convince most of them that signing a rock band to the label would be a great idea in order to branch out to the masses instead of just producing the same old music over and over again with a different name and face. They surprisingly loved the idea. Not that the guys weren't good, they were very good, Beca just wasn't expecting them to say yes. Rock is a weird genre. It's a complete hit or miss situation. They liked the idea of a guest female vocalist for a few songs and maybe a whole album too. Even more so when they found out Beca was number one on the list of potential artists.

In school, Beca had been this crazy little alt-chick that was quiet but at the same time, quite outspoken. There were times when she didn't think she melded so well with the style of the band. She was small, but boy is her voice powerful. As the band grew, so did her confidence. She rocked stage that they were allowed to be on. Even some they weren't supposed to be on. The songs she and Liam wrote were a little risqué. They were mostly about sex and empowerment. Of course, they had their doubts about Beca being able to pull off the devil-may-care attitude the lyrics needed to work with her level of confidence when they first started out. However, when it came down to the performance, she crushed it.

She was a different person on stage and they all knew it. Backstage she was a reserved character that kept mostly to herself, but you placed her onstage with her 3 friends, some badass guitar riffs, a microphone and a small crowd jumping up and down to the beat, she became someone else. Someone powerful and she loved every minute of it. The lyrics flowed from her as she strutted around the stage like she owned sexy. She was cocky, no doubt about that, but never arrogant. There was a fine line that she never crossed, refusing to be "that bitch".

One day in her senior year, they met Joe. He was cool, confident and possessed the same sort of demeanour that Beca did. They all instantly hit it off with the male version of their little friend and invited him to their gigs where Beca would constantly drag him on stage to sing with her. Nothing could stop them, they thought. Once they left school, they planned to move to LA and get signed to whatever label would take them. Of course, none of their parents approved. Liam's parents wanted him to move back to Wales with them once he finished school to help them look after his grandmother. TJ was a mommy's boy at heart and she wasn't ready to let her little man travel across the country by himself. Chris and Joe's parents refused due to money issues. Little did they know they had all been saving for quite a while to help their dreams become reality.

Beca's mom wanted her to go to college before moving away. She wanted her to have something to fall back on if the band didn't work but the little rock star in the making was having none of it.

That was until Beca's mom suddenly died. A car crash caused by a drunk driver. She died on impact. So Beca left. She left the band, she left the guys and she left their hometown. She found her father and he offered her a free place at the college he was working at. She had to go to college. Her mom would have wanted her to at least try. She began working at the college's radio station with this guy named Jesse. Nice guy, tall, short brown hair, shit-eating grin constantly plastered on his face. Typical nice guy. They got along. He was lovely to her, they laughed constantly around each other and they became good friends, even if he was goofy and way too obsessed with films for Beca's liking. They tried dating for a little while but something wasn't quite right. He was a great guy and a catch, but Beca couldn't help but feel that something was missing. She liked him, but struggled to emotionally attach herself to him the way her attached to her and she didn't know why.

That was until she met Aubrey. Aubrey was in her senior year and captain of the Bellas, an all-girl a cappella group. She had approached Beca one afternoon and asked for a shout-out on the university's radio station. At first, the little DJ wanted noting more than to punch the blonde. She was uptight and rude to her for no reason other than she didn't like the way she looked. She complied anyway and made the shout-out for the blonde. Aubrey was listening to the radio waiting for her message to air when she heard the most amazing mash-up. _Bulletproof_ and _Titanium_. She wanted nothing more than to listen to it over and over again. She went to her iTunes only to find the mash-up didn't exist. She scoured the Internet but it was a fruitless endeavour. She found Beca a few days later and asked her where she got it from to play it on the radio. She was not expecting the brunette to be the creator of the mix. Beca had started mixing before her mom died but mostly kept it to herself. However, she had talent and Aubrey wasn't about to let her waste it.

They hung out a lot more despite their rocky start and during the course of the year, they became inseparable. Jesse hated it. He hated Aubrey and he hated Beca for letting her take all of her time away. They fought constantly over it. He was jealous and certain that Aubrey had feelings for his girlfriend. Beca never said anything to Aubrey; she didn't want her to think that this was her problem. She knew what that blonde could be like when she was stressed out.

One night after a particularly bad argument, Beca stormed from her dorm to Aubrey's apartment close by. Aubrey opened the door to see a very depressed looking DJ. The blonde ushered her in a cracked open the wine. Beca told her everything. She cried all night as she relived the arguments they'd had, the fighting, the kicking and screaming. Aubrey just listened. She was angry with Jesse for hurting her so much and making the little DJ cry. Beca never cried. The continued drinking until the early hours and that's when the kiss happened. Beca was just so sad and Aubrey wanted nothing more than to make her friend feel better. Beca craved some form of affection, anything she could get. She wasn't exactly getting a lot in her current relationship. Neither of them expected it, but they liked it. Probably more than they ever should have. Something clicked in Beca's head. This was why.

He didn't seem to understand what she told him. He thought it was some sort of joke. Regardless of his comments and pleas for her to stay, she left Jesse. It wasn't exactly the easiest time for her but Beca Mitchell was gay and she knew she couldn't change it.

Beca dropped out of college the same time Aubrey graduated and they both moved away to start anew. They had decided after the incident with the drunken kiss that they were just going to stay close friends. Adding a relationship to the already massive pile of confusion going on in their lives was not a good idea. Beca had set up her own company with the blonde's help and within two years it was immensely popular and growing at a rapid rate. By the time Beca had hit the age of 23, she was a multi-millionaire that owned one of the biggest record labels out there. She still made mixes and original songs under her DJ title and it only added to her fame and wealth. She had made it. She had it all, but not the way she had initially hoped for. After some searching and phone calls, she invited her old band to come visit her. She wanted to help them achieve their dream and as the CEO of a major record label, she could do just that.


	6. Chapter 6

_**AN: I hit over 100 follows today, guys! Because I love every single of you readers out there, I have put sleep on hold to give you chapter six! Sorry-not-sorry for the sad times in this chapter. Next one will contain Bechloe fluff, I promise! Enjoy, party people!**_

Chapter 6- Chloe's story.

Sunday in the Beale household was spent at church. Like most families in the area, they all attended their local church and joined together in prayer and song. All of their neighbours and friends met them once a week there. They laughed and joked and of course they spoke about God and those in their small community that didn't worship. I say talked, I mean gossiped. They gossiped about who was getting divorced, who let their kids get a piercing amongst other things most people who live fairly non-religious lives would consider completely normal.

Chloe was not allowed to be friends with any children that did not attend the church. They were 'tainted' as her father so eloquently put it. She lived a very sheltered lifestyle. It didn't bother her at a young age, she knew no different. She was placed into a Christian private school. It wasn't until she was around 13 years old that she realised she was different. Her friends would talk about boys all the time, she listened but she didn't care. She really didn't care. Why would she care if Johnny in their biology class had a new hair cut? It was a stupid haircut and it matched his stupid face. It totally made him only made him look more unappealing that he already was. She voiced this opinion to her friends who looked at her with confusion and disgust for what she had just said. Johnny was the ultimate crush for every girl in that class. Every girl pined after him, except for Chloe. It was at that moment Chloe was asked a question that effectively changed her life completely.

"What are you, a lesbian or something?"

She knew her friend meant it in jest but it hit her and it hit her hard. Everything she thought she knew about herself suddenly made no sense but nothing in her life had ever felt clearer at the same time. She finally knew what all these feelings were that had been plaguing her for God only knows how long. It was a relief to finally be able to put her confusion at ease. That night she went home, not happy, but content with her realisation. The night wore on and she heard yelling downstairs. Her father was drunk again and ranting on about 'the homos across the street'. Something about them kissing just outside their own front door. How was she ever going to tell her mother and father? There was a noise from downstairs. A plate had come into contact with the wall and smashed into a thousand pieces right above her mother's head.

"Don't let me catch you defending that sick lifestyle again, Sharon." This was all the redhead heard before bursting out into tears and locking herself in her room. She was gay and her father was going to hate her if she ever said anything. She couldn't tell him. Either of them. She would just have to keep it a secret, for the remainder of her life.

She was 16 when she met Tom. Tom was the son of a William Richmond. William and Chloe's father were good friends due to the fact that they had worked together for years. Tom was not seen at the church before. He had been living with his Grandmother for many years so he could go to a private school upstate. He very rarely came to visit his parents but moved back when his grandmother died. They became good friends. Tom reminded Chloe of her father and being a daddy's girl, that was a good thing in her books. She knew her father liked him too, which made her happy to know. She had always looked up to her father and she always wanted to make him proud of her and he was when she found a friend in Tom.

A year went by and life went on as usual. Chloe became busy with school; church was still a thing, unfortunately. She had given up on the idea that there was a God a few years ago. What sort of God would make her feel this way towards other women? What God would do that, give her an ever growingly abusive father and make her life a living hell? If it was a test of faith, she failed. She stopped caring long a go in the knowledge that hell couldn't be much worse than life on earth anyway. However, her father was still an issue and she'd rather not have the fight with him, or the slaps he so generously handed out when she spoke out of turn.

August 24th 2007. This was the day she met Rose. Rose was a tall brunette with soft blue eyes, the cutest button nose and clad in skinny jeans complimenting her Guns and Roses band shirt. She had snakebites, a nose ring and of course stretcher ears. Tattoos littered her arms and parts of her exposed chest. Despite the slightly scary body modifications, she was a sweet and gentle young woman with a heart of gold. How could anyone who met her not love her instantly? Chloe wandered into Starbucks on her way back from the gym and her eyes instantly fell on the brunette sat at a table close to the cash register tapping away on her laptop. She was too busy staring to notice that she was walking into someone with a hot drink in hand. Of course, the drink went everywhere, including all over the beautiful brunette. Apologies flew around the room for a good 10 minutes and even more when it was realised that Rose's computer was completely dead after taking a hot coffee bath. Chloe gave the girl her number and address to send her the bill for the total cost to have the laptop repaired.

She didn't actually expect the girl to text her the same day. She didn't expect the content of the text either.

' _Hey, it's coffee shop girl. I'm sorry our first meeting had to be you dumping some poor man's coffee on me! Feel free to say no but I was wondering if you'd like to actually go out and have coffee that stays in a cup? By the way, I got a guy to fix my laptop for free so don't worry about having to fork out a load of cash for it. -Rose'_

Of course Chloe went to see her. They saw each other a lot after the initial meeting, often meeting for coffee and staying in the shop until closing time just talking. Everything about their friendship was effortless.

A month or so after getting to know Rose, Chloe had decided to invite her over for dinner. He father was at work and her mother visiting friends. They ate dinner, watched a bad movie and talked more. During the course of the movie, the girls gradually gravitated towards each other and ended up practically cuddling on the couch. The end credits rolled and both girls agreed the movie was terrible. They laughed and joked about the characters and the awful acting. The laughter died out and silence over came the room. They were still cuddling. Their mouths turned up into perfect smiles and eyes locked. Chloe knew what Rose was thinking the second she glanced down at her lips. She wanted to kiss her. Chloe wanted to kiss her too. She wanted to know how it felt to finally touch her lips to someone else's. She was desperate to know how soft Rose's lips were and what she would taste like.

Breaths hitched as the pair grew closer, an inch away from finally locking lips. Neither of them noticed the third person present in the room until a voice crashed through their eardrums. Chloe's father had returned home. She didn't remember much else from that night. All she could ever recall was Rose being thrown out and her life threatened. He stormed over to the redhead and with one swift punch; she was face down lying on the floor. She awoke the next morning very stiff and very sore. Her arms were bruised, her ribs hurt and her face was swelled from the fist that landed on her cheek.

She never saw Rose again.

She didn't leave her room for weeks. She lived in constant fear of her father. This was what triggered the bulimia, the self-harm, and the constant voice in her head that told her to punish herself for letting her father down.

Surprisingly, Tom was the one who got her out of bed and out of the house. He didn't know why she was the way she was but he liked her and wanted to see her happy again. It took a while but old Chloe started to peep through the surface of her new, reserved persona that she had adopted.

A few months passed and Tom asked her to be his girlfriend. She said yes. Maybe now her father would love her again.

The day she met Liam was a rough one for the redhead. That morning, Tom had slapped her for burning his toast. It seemed petty but he was still angry from the previous night. He wanted sex, she said no. She was far from in the mood to just lie there for 10 minutes in pain while he got what he wanted. He yelled and yelled and yelled at her.

"You're worthless!"

"You're nothing but a little slut!"

"I saved you from yourself! No one else will ever want you!"

The same lines he gave her most nights. She sat there and took his abuse. She thought he was right. She cried herself to sleep that night after giving in and giving him what he wanted. She was right to think what she did when they first met. Tom was exactly like her father.

With the toast burnt and no more food in the small house they had together, Tom stormed out leaving a couple of bills on the table for Chloe to go shopping. She picked up her keys and left for the store. She needed to get out of the house even if it was just for a few hours.

When she retuned, she found a handbag on the kitchen table that didn't belong to her. Her curiosity grew as she heard increasingly loud noises from upstairs. She followed the noises to find Tom on top of another woman. His best friend, to be exact. Chloe's eyes widened as Tom flung himself off of her and began yelling at her. Of course he would make this out to be her fault. She didn't even bother packing. He owned everything in the house anyway, he bought her the clothes she wore, the food she ate, the chairs she sat on. She wasn't allowed to work, she was to stay at home, cook and clean for him. Anyone would have thought they were living in the 50's with the ideology.

She ran out of the house and jumped in to the one thing she did own, her car. A present for graduating college from her parents. She went to their house first and she told her mother what had happened. Of course her mother took her in, she was her little girl after all.

Chloe needed to make a phone call. She had applied for a position at Capitol weeks ago but Tom found out and made her turn down the job offer they sent her. She basically begged the woman on the phone for them to reconsider her.

Her father came home a few hours later and just repeated the same things Tom said about it being her fault he cheated. He made a long list of why Tom was too good for her and decided now was a good time to tell her every item on the list.

For the second time that day, Chloe stormed out of the house. Fuck him. Fuck Tom. Fuck everyone. Her eyes watered as she walked through the town and finally she saw a place that was still open. With a deep breath she walked through the doors, the smell of alcohol hitting her like a freight train. She sat at the bar and ordered a glass of chardonnay. She took a sip and placed it back on the bar. _So this is what alcohol tastes like?_ She thought to herself. It was nice once you got passed the burn in your throat. She knocked back the drink and ordered herself another. She sat there with tears threatening to surface at any second. It was then she heard a chipper voice with a funny sounding accent to it.

"Hey, are you okay?" she looked up from her glass and at the person the voice belonged to."Silly question, you're clearly not okay. What are you drinking, m'love? I'll buy you one, you look like you need it."


	7. Chapter 7

_**AN: Thank you all for your lovely reviews! I am currently taking prompts for new stories as I think I would like to start a new one to help break my thoughts up a little. (No, I will not be abandoning this story.) I have a few ideas bubbling around but I would like to hear my amazing readers' opinions! Leave a review, PM me or catch me on twitter TheAlmightyBeck. Happy reading, beautiful people!**_

Chapter 7

Chloe stood outside the door of the large palace-like building that Beca Mitchell called home. She had been there more than a few minutes now and it would have looked extremely strange to anyone watching. She raised her fist up to knock the door before she retracted it again and took some deep breaths. _Get your shit together Beale, you'll be fine and you know it._ She'd been giving herself the same pep talk over and over again since she arrived.

It was no secret she was nervous. She'd not actually held any conversations with the boys sober and with Beca, well, that was another story. She just wanted her to like her. She was her boss after all and a good impression is always helpful. That and she couldn't stop thinking about those damn kisses. She let her mind wander back to that night and how completely at ease she felt. It felt so right, even in her intoxicated state. The guys were absolutely lovely to her and she had no idea why they were. They didn't know her, they didn't owe her anything but they wanted to cheer her up and that warmed her heart. Even Beca was surprisingly welcoming of her. She had never met Chloe in her life yet she opened her home up to her, drove her to work and saved her from being fired. These people are the very definition of good people. It made her wonder why her father tried so hard to keep people like them away from her for so long. They seemed happy and carefree. Isn't that what everyone wants from life, to be happy?

With a large inhale of air, she knocked the door three times and stood back. _Everything is going to be fine._

"That'll be your lady love, B." Chris stated with a smirk imprinted on his face. Beca just rolled her eyes and let out a huff. Let the teasing commence.

TJ bolted up from his spot on the floor and threw his PS4 controller onto the couch. "I'll get it! I'll get it! I'll get it!" He ran through the hallway and bumped into Liam exiting the kitchen also on route to the door. "Liam, I'll get it!"

"I don't think so!" Liam sprung towards the door and opened it in one quick motion ignoring the profanities spilling out of TJ's mouth at him. Chloe spun around and her eyes widened immediately to see Liam in the door way with a huge grin on his face and a rather annoyed looking TJ behind him.

"Yo, Red!" He greeted, still laughing a little from winding his little drummer friend up. "Nice to see you again! Might I say, you are looking just darling tonight."

"Hey Chloe!" TJ spoke up smiling just as wide as his taller friend. "Liam's right, you look pretty today!"

Chloe of course was bright red. A shy smile appeared on her face as she looked down at her shoes.

"Don't just stand there! Come in, come in!" Liam guestured into the house and Chloe obliged stepping into the abode. "Beca and Chris are in the front room, Joe is off out window licking somewhere in the town and Stacie will be here later when her plane lands."

"Umm, window licking?" Chloe's brows furrowed in confusion at the extremely odd choice of phrase.

"Oh, God, yeah. You Yanks haven't got a clue what I'm chatting on about. It just means he's off doing something stupid because he's weird and whatnot."

"Well that's a new one." She stated walking through the hallway trying to suppress her giggling. "Stacie is your girlfriend, right?" She asked.

"She is indeed. She's flying out here for a few weeks to stay with us while we get the band stuff sorted. Hey, maybe you can help us convince Beca to rejoin us for a few songs? She's getting splinters in her arse at the moment from being sat on the fence for too long mulling it over."

"Oh, I doubt she'd listen to me. I barely know her and I've not heard any of your songs with Beca in them so I don't even know anything about the style or-"

"-Hold up, Ginger. You have no idea how much influence you actually have. It's scary actually. Beca actually smiles around you instead of her usual resting bitch face. Also, you've heard our stuff?"

Unable to fathom a response regarding Beca's behaviour around her, she skipped that part all together in her response. "Well, yeah, the night after I got back to my parents house and I searched you guys on iTunes and found some really awesome songs."

"And you didn't come across anything with Beca in it?"

"Umm, no?" It was more of a question than a statement, she didn't listen to many of the songs and the ones she did, didn't contain a female voice.

"Chris!" Liam bellowed as he entered the front room. "Fetch my CD stash." He said in a deep and demanding voice. Chris' eyes lit up, he knew what was about to happen. Chloe slowly entered the room, her eyes quickly met Beca's. Her mouth turned into a painfully shy smile and Beca just melted then and there. This woman was too adorable for her to handle. She smiled at the redhead and got up to allow her to sit down where she was placed, blissfully unaware of the events that were about to unfold.

"Hey, you." The tiny DJ greeted. "How have you been? Settling in well?"

"I've been okay thank you. I'm settling in well I think. Still getting lost on occasion but I think I'm getting there. What about you, how have you been?"

"Well, I've had my hands full with these losers the past few days. It's like having kids. I feel like I'm going grey already at the ripe old age of 24." She let out a small chuckle and got quite the glare from TJ.

"I'm not a child Miss Mitchell." He held his hand to his chest in mock-offense.

Beca raised her eyebrow. "Oh, is that true? Just yesterday, TJ, I had to pull a cheerio out of your nose because you let Joe dare you too see if you could actually eat it through your nose."

"I'm sure we agreed to never speak of that again."

"Oh, TJ. Sweet, naïve TJ. I am _never_ letting you live that down." Beca just laughed at the look of pure embarrassment on her friend's face. Chloe of course, was already crying of laughter. "You're 24. Have you not learned that if you do stupid shit, people will make fun of you yet?" She spoke in between giggling.

The laughter died out slowly and Beca took a chance to really take in Chloe's appearance. She looked beautiful, more beautiful than when she first set eyes on her, if that was possible. Her light make-up, tanned skin and those skinny jeans that hugged her hips in all the right places made sure of that. Granted, what she was wearing was rather casual but something about that made Beca's stomach do back flips. She smiled at the redhead as their eyes caught each other. She knew that Chloe noticed her shamelessly staring. She refused to feel embarrassed that she just got caught checking her out, Chloe was without a doubt, hot and Beca planned on making sure she knew that she found her attractive one way or another.

Chloe retuned her smile, casually letting her eyes drop to the brunette's body before quickly retuning to her face.

Unfortunately for the pair, this action did not go unnoticed by Beca's best friend.

"Oh my days, will you two stop having eye-sex for a minute? It's rather rude to the others in the room. If you want to make come-to-bed eyes at each other, please do it away from your friends in the other room." Liam spoke with a sarcastic tone that earned him a middle finger from the tiny DJ and a rather contemplated look from the redhead. "Actually, Chris is retuning, so don't leave the room 'cause this is gonna be hilarious, sorry not sorry, Becs."

Beca quipped her head around to face Liam who was sporting a large grin. Her eyes widened. "Liam," she warned. "What is going on?"

"Just remember how much you love me and how awesome I am and how you could never live life without my beautiful face in the world then everything should be fine. No reason to panic."

"No reason to panic? You saying 'no reason to panic' qualifies as a reason for me to panic." She looked around at Chloe. "Do you know anything about this?"

Chloe snapped out of her thoughts, still shocked Liam called her his friend. She didn't expect any of them to consider her that at all. "I actually don't, sorry."

"She doesn't know anything, Bec, but she's about to see you in a whole other light."

"Liam, if you're about to show her what I think you're going to show her, you are a dead and homeless man." Beca's voice was stern but not entirely serious. Though she probably would be ready to kill him once he plays the CD.

Chris reappeared without any CD stash in his hands and Beca let out a large sigh of relief. Then he started fumbling around on the PlayStation controller getting up YouTube. "I couldn't find the CD, man, but-"

"-But nothing, Chris, it's not happening." Beca deadpanned as she attempted snatching the controller from her friend. Chris held the controller above his head and gave her a look that said 'try it, bitch'. She at glared him. Damn her short legs.

"Bec, just sit down and shut up. It's happening and the sooner we educate Chloe about you, the sooner we can order pizza and play some games. Here." Liam handed her a beer and placed his hand on her shoulder effectively pushing her back down into her seat next to the very confused guest. He reached over and handed Chloe a beer too, which she took without hesitation.

TJ sat on the floor clapping his hands excitedly waiting for Beca to be thoroughly embarrassed after she wound him up earlier.

"Please don't judge me on this, by the way, that's not what I'm really like, I promise. I'm not that crazy in real life. I was 18 and umm, I don't know, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Please don't think I'm some sort of bigheaded dick. I'm not, I just-" her rambling was cut short by a hand on her knee and she was sure her heart skipped a beat.

"Bec, whatever it is, I'll be sure not to judge." She smiled at the shorter woman then glanced over to Chris who was currently making gagging noises, grossed out by the cuteness of Beca's nervous rambling. He quickly stopped though when a pillow from the couch was thrown at his head. He turned to the direction from which the pillow originated to see Beca whistling and looking anywhere but at Chris. He stared at her until she looked him in the eye as he pointed to his eyes, then hers mouthing 'I'm watching you'. She stuck her tongue out at the man and chuckled.

"Okay, here we go. Apocalyptic by Citizen Smith is about to play. Liam, you gonna dance with me, you sexy beast?" Chris stated with a wink at the redhead sat waiting patiently for the video to buffer. He held his hand out to Liam who took it and they got into their starting positions.

"You know, I'm sure Chloe doesn't want to see this." The tiny DJ went to get out of her seat to turn the TV off but was stopped by a hand lightly gripping her wrist.

"Oh, no, Chloe wants to see this." The taller woman laughed and pulled Beca back down ignoring her groaning and grumbling.

Chloe's jaw dropped as the beginning of the video started to play. There was 18-year-old Beca stood on stage wearing a very revealing cropped t-shirt, skinny jeans and large high heels showing off her impossibly toned abs and legs to die for. Her make-up was dark but gave her the sexy, badass look about her and her hair was a lot longer and full of loose and messy curls. _Holy shit._ If that wasn't enough, the brunette began to sing and Chloe nearly lost it.

 _ **I wear my nine-inch heels when we go to bed**_

 _ **I paint the colour of my lips blood red**_

 _ **I get so animal like never before**_

 _ **So you press play and I'll hit record**_

Chloe's jaw was on the floor, eyes glued to the screen loving every second as Beca sat besides her looking anywhere but the screen unsure of how she even managed to sit back and let Liam and Chris humiliate her like this. _Dickheads._

The chorus played and Chloe started bobbing her head along to the beat understanding why Beca wanted her to not to see this side of her but she was loving seeing the DJ like this, it was undoubtedly sexy to see her confident side and she could not take her eyes off the girl currently strutting across the makeshift stage like she owned the place. The second verse began to play and Beca just buried her face in her hands. This is not what she wanted Chloe to see before she even had a chance to ask her out. She was certain the taller woman would shoot her down after this. If only she knew what was going through Chloe's head right now.

 _ **Give me a red handprint right across my ass**_

 _ **I'm leaving scratches up and down your back**_

 _ **Throw me against the wall**_

 _ **Bite me on my neck**_

 _ **Like end of the world break-up sex**_

Chloe let out and little giggle at the lyric choice and Beca had finally had enough. "Okay that's it, fun's over now. I'm thoroughly embarrassed at my teenage-self and would appreciated if we stopped picking on the short one and just had a nice evening where I don't want to stab you all." She got up and turned the PlayStation off as a chorus of 'Awh's filled the room.

"Why are you embarrassed?" Chloe was the first to speak. "That was actually really good, not to mention, teenage you was pretty hot." She winked at the brunette who was now blushing furiously. "I don't know why you gave it up, you guys rocked!"

Sensing the pained look on Beca's face, Liam quickly changed the subject. "Hey, Chloe, wanna hear our new song? Beca produced it for us and even has a little singing part in it."

"She does?" Liam nodded. "Sure!"

Beca groaned again.

"Oh hush up Becs, one song and we can order pizza, Joe will be back with the beers and get on to the real topic of the evening."

"Which is?" Beca questioned.

"Which is to be discussed later." He grinned at his miniature friend. "Chloe, you're going to love this. I know it's way different to the stuff we used to make but I'm super sure it's still going be sick. Chris, dude, play the song."

Chris played around with his phone and the track began to play.

 _ **Pry the darkness from my eyes**_

 _ **Divided, let the light seep in**_

 _ **Trees devoid of branches and hollow hives**_

 _ **An endless black and empty beds**_

 _ **It's not the same, something's changed**_

 _ **I never used to be able to see past the trees**_

 _ **A thousand unfamiliars are lying thick on the air and I can't breathe**_

 _ **Is our skin to keep the world out or our bodies in?**_

 _ **This doesn't look like home, this doesn't look like home**_

 _ **Is our skin to keep the world out or our bodies in?**_

 _ **I'll tear the apart the town then sleep and sleep alone**_

 _ **If I'm a flame I'm a forest fire**_

 _ **Speaking savage tongues as I emerge from the hills**_

 _ **I am an avalanche**_

 _ **I am unchained**_

 _ **I'm awoken**_

 _ **I'll unleash hell**_

 _ **So I roar, pin back my ears and stone by stone I'll tear it all**_

 _ **I'll tear it apart**_

The song was filled with emotion and anger. Chloe loved every second. Beca sat there bobbing her head. The moment Liam sent her the lyrics after a disappointing trip back to his hometown she knew it was going to be an awesome track. He was obviously upset at what had happened when he returned to the states but he and the rest of the band jumped straight into the recording studio to get the song finished while the emotion was still fresh. Beca felt for her friend. He went home to find just outside of his town where there used to be fields and wooded areas filled with wildlife and pure tranquillity was gone. It was a building site for 1000 new homes. Half of the properties were empty, the place was noisy and the people living there were rude and lacked respect for the land. He was devastated that the landscape was just all of a sudden gone. His hometown wasn't his home anymore and that hurt him badly. The chorus played through again and Beca's voice filled the room with a softer tone to it than Joe's rough rock and roll-esque singing voice.

 _ **I've lost faith, the forest's changed**_

 _ **My stomach's empty, I'm feeling faint**_

 _ **I've lost heart, the forest's scarred**_

 _ **I hear no birds, just TV's and cars**_

 _ **I've lost faith, the forest's changed**_

 _ **My stomach's empty, I'm feeling faint**_

 _ **I've lost sight, the forest's died**_

 _ **The brambles are and I'm hollow inside**_

Her voice rang through the speakers as she belted the last part to the bridge

 _ **Each breath rattles like dice in my chest,**_

 _ **Each breath gambled, unwinding 'till death.**_

The chorus played through once more and the song died out. Not much was said after that. Smiles filled the room and praise was given by all present to each other over the track.

An hour or so later, the pizza arrived and everyone was on at least their 4th beer. Chloe, being extremely new to drinking was already very tipsy. All shyness originally emanating from the redhead was gone. It wasn't called liquid courage for nothing. They were currently talking about a couple of the new songs they have in the works and Beca was still on the fence about re-joining the band. She knew she was being silly. She did miss the performances, the rehearsals and the entire social aspect wasn't to be snuffed at. It was hard work but she loved every second. There was something holding her back and it wasn't her job like everyone thought.

"Come on B, you know you want to." Chris stated with a swig of his beer doing his best puppy eyed impression. "One song, one song is all we ask and if you want to continue, we'll go from there. Pretty please, with a cherry on top?"

"Ugh, guys, let me think about it, it's been one day, for Christ's sake!" Beca yelled in mock seriousness. "I'm gonna go grab some more beers, anyone else want anything from the kitchen?" she asked as she was getting up and a chorus of no's replied. "Chloe, can you help me carry them all, please? I have a feeling this is going to be a two man job with the amount these dorks drink."

"Sure," the redhead replied standing up. She was definitely feeling the alcohol now as she swayed trying to walk to the door.

"Wow, you okay?" Beca said just in time to catch her before she fell back onto the couch.

"I'm fantastic, thank you very much, pretty lady." She grinned with her eyes closed and thumbs up.

"Okay, red, I think it's time for you to have some coffee." Beca lead the tipsy girl into the kitchen and sat her on the chair while she flipped the coffee maker on. "You really can't handle your alcohol, can you?" She laughed trying to find a cup that wasn't dirty. _Boys. Why are they so messy?_

"I'd never drank before Sunday so I'd assume my tolerance for the devil's liquid is rather low."

"Devil's liquid? And really?" The redhead nodded.

"That's what my dad calls it. He's so religious it's scary. I wasn't allowed to do anything remotely fun. But, I've decided recently to stop listening to his opinions and do what I want. I listened to him for too long and it made me really sad but I'm here with you guys and you're all so lovely and wonderful and I'm really happy right now, it's like, so great." She smiled looking over at the DJ. "You're great, like really great and also really pretty and have really pretty eyes and you're so small, it's so cute."

"Okay, ginger, you are drunk!" Beca let out a laugh and handed her a coffee.

"Thank you, pretty lady." She pressed the cup to her lips and took a sip. "Ow, that's hot, why is it hot? That's not cool."

"Because it's coffee, Red." She shook her head and let out another laugh. "I take it your dad isn't your favourite person in the world right now?"

"He's like my second least favourite. Tom is number one 'cause he's mean and he hit me and it hurt and I don't like him anymore." She spluttered out and Beca's eyes widened at the revelation. Chloe seemed completely oblivious to what she had just said.

"He… He hit you?"

"Mm, he did. That's mean, isn't it? Mom always told me 'don't hit people' 'cause that's not nice and no one will be your friend if you hit people. It's weird though because Tom has lots of friends."

"It's very mean." Beca was lost for words. _How could anyone hit her? She's like pure sunshine!_ "Didn't you go to the police?"

"What's the point? It's done now but I left him, he's gone and now I have a job and that alone is awesome! He wouldn't let me get a job but now I have one 'cause I'm a little rebel."

"Okay, little rebel. Drink up, it'll help kill the alcohol in your system." Beca was furious to say the least. She tried not to let it show but inside she was screaming.

She sat with Chloe while she drank her coffee trying to talk about anything else that came to mind. She needed to calm down but images of someone hitting the redhead kept flooding back into her mind.

"What made you apply for the internship? You're a bit older than all the other interns so your resume is a little more decorated, you could have any job you wanted. Why this one?"

Chloe contemplated the question for a minute before answering. "Hmm, I guess you could say that it's the start of a dream."

"Care to elaborate?"

"Well, growing up wasn't exactly easy. Between a religious, homophobic father, a mother who drank herself silly, a mean boyfriend, coming to terms with my sexuality and _loads_ of schoolwork, I didn't exactly have much freedom or room to think. Music was my escape. I started a blog critiquing music and I fell in love with it. I'd sit there for hours just getting lost in the music then writing about it. I set up a 'must listen' list for people like me who needed an escape. I applied for the job to hopefully prove myself and work up. I really want to be able to be part of the process that helps people improve their sound and grow. I don't care how long it takes, that's my dream job and I thought maybe this internship was my foot in the door." She replied honestly. Still slightly tipsy, of course. Sober Chloe would never pour her heart out like that. At least not anymore. Whether she liked it or not, she was more damaged than she realised.

"Deep stuff, Chlo. Well, whatever it is you want to do, I'm here and I'll support you. If you want to be a music critic, I can-" The brunette stopped midsentence. "-Why're you looking at me like that?" Chloe was smiling profusely and her eyes shinning, flickering between the brunette's eyes and lips.

"You called me Chlo." She all but practically whispered still smiling widely.

"Oh, umm, I'm sorry?" Beca stuttered out. "I can not call you that if you like? I didn't mean anything-" She was silenced by a soft pair of strawberry flavoured lips catching hers in a short but sweet kiss. Chloe pulled away slowly but still in time to see Beca's eyes flutter open and let out a large contented sigh.

"Hey, Chloe?" The redhead's eyes met hers. "Would you umm, I don't know, like to go grab a coffee or something sometime? I mean, it doesn't have to be coffee, whatever you want really, I just-" She was cut off again with yet another kiss. This one however was a little more than a soft peck. Their lips melded together and Chloe's hand snaked up behind the brunette's neck to pull her forward to deepen the kiss further. Of course, Beca complied, opening her mouth a little more to allow the kiss to flow.

Unsure of where this newfound confidence came from, Chloe rolled with the urges she was having and moved her hand to cup Beca's cheek.

"Guys! Where's the beer at?" They heard a voice shout from the next room, probably belonging to Liam. In fact, Beca knew it was Liam. She made a mental note to put salt in his coffee instead of sugar in the morning.

"One day, I will kiss you without an unwanted interruption." She promised the redhead as she stood up grabbing a handful of beers as she exited the kitchen. Chloe sat in the chair touching her lips where Beca's had been less than 30 seconds ago, smiling like a love-struck teenager. This was probably going to earn her a few problems down the line but right now, she was the happiest she had ever been and was determined to cling onto this for as long as she could. She picked up the remaining beers and headed back into the front room, her smile unaltered.

 _ **AN: Songs used- Apocalyptic by Halestorm and A Tale of Outer Suburbia by Hands Like Houses**_


	8. Chapter 8

**AN: Sorry for the long time it took me to update, guys. I had a stressful few weeks then I decided I hate my job, took a lot of time off and took my girlfriend to Barcelona 'cause why not? But, I'm home now and back to normality so expect better updates. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to review, PM me, or catch me on twitter (TheAlmightyBeck) or instagram (the_crackfox). Happy reading!**

Chapter 8

Chloe walked back into the living room and placed the beers on the coffee table next to the pile Beca had created but not before swiping one from the collection. She pulled the ring of the can open and went to take a swig. Just as the cool metal of the can touched her lips, none other than the small brunette she had just been kissing in the other room swiftly pulled it away. She looked at Beca with furrowed brows, which quickly softened as a smirk tugged on the brunette's lips.

"No more for you, missy. I gave you the coffee to sober you up a little," Beca said as she pulled the can up to her own lips and took a large swig. "Stop trying to undo my hard work," she added and pointed a finger pointed at the redhead's nose. Chloe stuck her tongue out playfully at her boss and Beca threw her a wink before turning to sit back down on the couch.

"So, what is everyone talking about?" she said as she flopped down on to the soft cushioning.

"We were talking about that time Liam got dared to do the milk challenge back in 10th grade," TJ said with a laugh at the end.

"Dear Lord." Beca's eyes widened. "I remember that, I also remember being dragged out of my bed at 7am by Liam's mom along with you, Chris and Stacie with a wicked hangover and being forced to clean up the vomit from the garden while Liam was in the bathroom."

"Umm, what's the milk challenge?" Chloe asked, clearly very confused by the consequences of whatever this dare was.

TJ shifted to face Chloe and explain. "It was one of those silly trending challenges back when we were kids, you know, like the ice bucket challenge or the neck nominations or the cinnamon challenge. Basically, the challenge is to get a gallon of milk and add food colouring to it then down the lot in one go."

"Guys? Can we not re-live this please? My stomach will thank you. I still can't drink milk to this day." Liam butted in but his protests fell on deaf ears.

"Shut up, Liam, the lady asked to hear the story and the story shall be told." Chris threw a pillow at Liam as he motioned for TJ to carry on with the nostalgic anecdote of their adolescence.

"As I was saying, when you add the food colouring, the milk begins to curdle. Of course, curdled milk is not fun to drink but none of us would ever back out of a dare so he drank the lot and then puked his guts up all over his mum's garden and spent the next day on the toilet shitting through the eye of a needle."

The room erupted with a lot of teasing all on Liam's behalf.

"Liam, why did you do that if you knew it's make you sick?" Chloe asked with laughter still rocking her body.

"Because they dared me!" he shouted out. "I never back out of a dare, none of us do! It's got us all into so much trouble over the years but that one was one of the worst for me. I can't even enjoy Coco-pops anymore! Do you know how traumatizing that is?"

Chloe just continued to laugh at his ridiculous excuse. "You only have yourself to blame!" He threw her a glare and an accompanying middle finger. "Okay, what's the worst thing you guys have dared each other to do?"

They all seemed to sit and contemplate the worst dare they could think of. There was quite a few. They were a pretty ballsy group of friends.

"I once dared Stacie to go full on dominatrix to scare Liam when we were in senior year." Chris said. "That one didn't end well," he laughed.

"That was you?!" Liam shouted. "You dick!" there was a playful tone to his voice but still he was a little annoyed that the whole situation was Chris' doing.

"Whoa! I never heard this, what happened?" Beca cut in.

"I think you were visiting your grandparents or something that summer. I was asked never to mention it again after Stacie came and gave me details. I dared Stacie to tie a collar and leash around Liam's neck and demand that he call her mistress amongst other weird shit." Beca's eyes widened and she craned her neck to look at Liam in disbelief. "The idiot did it!" Chris all but burst into laughter. "He was too scared to say no! It went on for days before he said anything!"

"Hey, man, I was trying to be a supportive boyfriend! We hadn't been dating long and I assumed she really was into that stuff but I really liked her so I tried to go along with it for as long as possible." He tried to defend himself in a serious tone but couldn't help the smile on his face. His friend was a dick but it is kind of funny looking back.

"Well, I think that was very admirable of you Liam." Chloe spoke up through the dull laughs still coming from everyone else in the room. "If only all men were as considerate to women as you are we'd be living in a very peaceful world."

"Thank you, Chloe. At least someone understands!" He elbowed Beca who was still bobbing up and down trying not to giggle. "I like this one, she can stay."

"You know, that was a good one, Chris but I think the one where I dared Beca to make out with her English teacher in the middle of the cafeteria takes the biscuit." Joe smiled and looked at Beca with an evil glint in his eyes as she shifted uncomfortably in her seat completely downing the rest of her beer. She could feel Chloe's eyes burning holes in the side of her head but she refused to turn to face her. Her cheeks were way too red.

"How long did you get suspended for that again, Bec?"

"Umm, like 2 weeks and I had to move English classes after she was investigated and we all gave our statements in to the police."

"The police?" Chloe asked.

"Yeah, they thought that there was something going on between us and me being 17 at the time so she was investigated and we all had to be interviewed. Luckily they believed us when we explained it was just a stupid dare. I had to write a formal letter of apology to Ms. Wilkes too."

"Wow, you weren't kidding when you said none of you back down from dares."

The conversation flowed off of the topic to lighter ones about their school days. It was nice to watch for Chloe. She didn't have anyone to do this with. Sit and reminisce with about the good times. Mainly because there weren't many good times while she was at school but she refused to let it get her down. She looked down at her watch to notice it was nearing on 11pm. With a sigh she looked back up and said her goodbyes to the boys and Beca and rang up a cab on her way out of the front door.

She started to walk up the driveway to wait at the top of the road for the cab when she heard the front door shut again. She quipped round to see the short brunette tiptoeing towards her trying not to step on any stones or bugs in her bare feet. Chloe smiled at her adorable antics. _Why does she have to be so cute?_ Beca plodded up to the redhead and stopped just inches away from her.

"You forgot something." Beca breathed out, her lungs still getting used to the cold air.

"I did?" Chloe replied unwrapping her arms from around herself, it was suddenly a lot warmer out here.

"Yeah, you did." Beca leaned forward and cupped the redhead's cheeks pulling her into a short but passionate kiss. She pulled away as quickly as she came in and just smiled up at the happily stunned ginger. "You also never gave me an answer when I asked you out for coffee."

Chloe nodded her head. "I guess we can."

"You guess? You don't sound so sure." Beca said trying to keep the slight hurt out of her voice and keep the playfulness in.

"I mean, I want to, don't get me wrong, you're amazing but-"

"It's okay if you don't want to Chlo, you just have to say no and I won't pester you or hold it against you. Just thought it was worth a shot. I mean, have you seen you?" she said with a slight chuckle and smile on her face and her hand rubbing the back of her neck.

"Bec, I-" her sentence was cut short by a honk of a horn from a yellow cab that sat at the top of the driveway. "I'll call you, yeah?"

"Uh, sure. Bye Chlo." She reached up to kiss the redhead's cheek and then made her way back inside the house. Chloe let out a large sigh and climbed into the cab.

About 25 minutes later the cab pulled up outside of her parent's home. She paid the driver and ambled through the front door at a total loss of what to do any no one to talk to about it. On one hand, she really liked the brunette. She's kind, she's funny, she's determined and not to mention incredibly hot and a great kisser. The fact she makes excellent music just makes her 10x more irresistible too. But that was part of the problem. In all the craziness that had happened over the past week, she had forgotten who Beca was. She was a multi-millionaire producer and an extremely famous at that whereas she was an intern at the company that said famous producer owns. She'd be stupid to think that wouldn't change their relationship if she were to start one with the brunette. The media would be all over her, making it very difficult to keep her private life, well, private. It's not that she had anything to hide from the World; it was just her parents she felt the need to hide from. What would happen if her dad found out she was dating a woman? The thought of what would happen to her or -God forbid- Beca was not a pleasant one.

Chloe shook the thoughts from her head instantly as her eyes met her father's who was staring down at her, anger dripping from them as he spoke. "Why are you home so late?"

"I'm 26, daddy. I didn't think my 10pm curfew still existed." She tried to walk past him when an arm fell across her chest stopping her in her tracks.

"You smell of alcohol. Have you been drinking?" She tried to ignore his question, hoping he would just drop the subject.

"Answer me!" he bellowed which made the woman jump in fear.

"Yes." She said meekly.

The next morning Beca walked into Aubrey's office just before 8:30am. She knew the blonde came in early on Friday's to make sure everything got done before the weekend. She found her friend buried in paperwork for the press release for the announcement of Citizen Smith's signing onto the label.

"Hey, not to be a pain in the ass but here, I bought you a present." Beca said unloading the paperwork in her hands onto Aubrey's desk.

"Oh, B, you shouldn't have. I didn't know you cared so much."

"No need for the sarcasm, Bree. Jeez, you're spending too much time with me." Beca added a wink to the end of her sentence. "But seriously, I can't do this, it's too much and I don't have time and-"

"Delegation is a bitch, I know. Ugh, you really are a pain in the ass. When do you need it by?" Aubrey knew Beca wouldn't be dumping this on her unless she had to but it was still inconvenient.

"Not 'til next week."

"Okay, I'll see if Chloe can do it when she gets in."

"Oh, okay, I'll go find her, I need to talk to her anyway. I think she's already here, I swear I just saw her in the hall. Her hair is hard to miss." Beca walked over to the door and went on a hunt to see if she could spot the unmistakable flow of bright red hair in the corridor.

Chloe was avoiding anyone who tried to talk to her about anything. She kept her head as low as possible as she sulked through the corridors on her morning coffee run. It was there she saw Beca and quickly hid behind a wall until her boss had gone off in the other direction. She quickly made her way into Aubrey's office. She wanted to put her coffee on her desk before she came in so that she didn't have to talk to the blonde. She walked in without knocking, not expecting to see her sat at her desk. She stopped in her tracks when Aubrey looked up at her face in shock.

"What the hell happened to your face?"

 _Shit._


	9. Chapter 9

**_AN: I hope you all enjoy this chapter but if not, let me know. I appreciate any and all criticism. Don't be afraid to let me know if you want to see anything particular happen in this fic. No promises but if I feel it would fit in nicely to the plans I have, I'll work to put your ideas in! Anyway, I hope you enjoy your gift from your friendly neighbourhood fanfic author! Peace._**

Chapter 9

Chloe awoke to find herself still lying by the doorway of her parents home. She slowly made her way up the stairs to her old bedroom that she had been staying in for the past week now. She didn't know what time it was, but judging by the fact the sun was just starting to come up, it was pretty early. Her head was spinning and she could feel her own pulse in her cheek. The throbbing didn't just end there; it was all over her chest and made its way down to her thighs. She walked into her bedroom trying not to scream out in pain as she sat down on the bed. A quick glance at the clock on her wall told her it was just gone 6am. Deciding that if she went to sleep now, she'd really struggle to get up, so she grabbed a clean set of clothes and carefully crept out of her bedroom and into the bathroom.

Once she was there, it took her a lot longer than she'd care to admit to take her current clothes off. Bending over was quite the issue with possibly fractured ribs. She stood up from the toilet seat where she had sat to try and get her socks off; she dared a look in the mirror at the damage.

She was littered with bruises. Some worst than others. Some were large, dark purple and very angry looking. Others were just as dark but not as large. The worst one was the huge hand sized mark on her face. How she was going to cover that, she didn't know. A quick Google search revealed strangely that lipstick could help cover it and plenty of concealer over the top. It also said maybe if she did her hair differently, it would distract attention from her face.

She turned the shower on and whilst it heated up, she rummaged through the medicine cabinet for some ibuprofen to take the swelling down.

Thankfully the warm water helped loosen her muscles up a bit and the medicine had kicked in so she wasn't in too much pain now she was out of the shower. She carefully dried herself off, trying not to focus too much on the patchwork of colours on her body courtesy of her doting father. Getting dressed was hard work but she managed it a lot better than taking them off (Thank you Dr. Adams for the wonderful invention). She began on her make up and did a pretty good job, considering. All that was left of the hideous mark on her face was a faint outline of purple but if you weren't looking directly at it, you wouldn't notice it. At one point she considered putting purple eye shadow on the other side and just feign tiredness and then people would just think they're bags. With a sigh and a final inspection of her handiwork, she left the bathroom and the house ready for work. There was no way she was phoning in sick on her first week.

/

"Chloe? What happened?" Aubrey got up from her desk and made her way over to the stunned redhead. She placed a finger on the girls chin and forced her head up so she could inspect the light purple bruise on her left cheek. Her worried expression had not moved from her face as the girl refused to look her in the eye. "Chloe, honey, please tell me who hurt you."

A single tear fell down her face and Aubrey moved a finger up to wipe it away. If Chloe had hoped that she would be able to claim it was just a small bruise from walking into something, that hope was now gone as the tear removed some of the make-up she had used to cover it revealing the aggressive colour underneath.

Aubrey's face fell as she began to wipe away more of the make-up from Chloe's cheek.

"Jesus, Chloe," she all but whispered. "Here, sit down." She pulled out a chair from the desk and lead Chloe to it and took the coffees out of her hand before closing the door and locking it to stop any unwanted interruptions.

Chloe just sat there with a blank expression on her face and staring into space with all signs of her crying, other than the smeared concealer, now gone. Aubrey pulled a second chair from under the desk and sat next to her. It wasn't until she reached out for the girls hand that Chloe even realised she was there. She gave a faint smile before looking down at the floor unsure of what to say.

"You're here early today Ms. Posen," she finally spoke up.

"Call me Bree. Yeah, I am, always am on a Friday. Why are you here so early? You don't start for another half hour or so yet."

"I umm- I had a rough night and needed to get out I guess."

"I figured you'd had a rough night. You want to talk about it?"

"It's nothing serious, I'm fine. Nothing I can't handle."

Aubrey let out a sigh. "Yeah, looks like you handled it real well. Just so you know, as your employer, I have a duty of care to you and I have to report this."

"No, please don't! It's fine; honestly, I don't need the police or anyone else involved. I just want to carry on doing my job and getting through the day. I can't deal with the hassle of that right now."

"We could face serious consequences and if this is recurring and ends up being taken to the police, both myself and Beca could be in a lot of shit."

Tears started to threaten to fall from Chloe's eyes as the realisation she would probably be forced to go to the police station by the end of the week by the blonde. She could always lie and say she fell. They can't make her report anything, right?

"Chloe, please, sweetie. Please, tell me what happened. I know I might seem like a bitch but I promise I do care about your wellbeing. You're an amazing girl and it sickens me to see that someone could even dare to touch you in such a way. Please, talk to me."

Chloe looked up to Aubrey's emerald green eyes to see genuine concern and worry flooding out of them. That's when she simply just broke down. Tears endlessly flowed down her face, she couldn't catch her breath and she whole body started to shake as the sobs rocked through her. Her boss just moved closer to her and held her while she cried. This was the last thing she thought she'd have to deal with today.

After a solid five minutes, the sobs died out and she regained her ability to breathe normally. Without making eye contact, she began her story.

"I went to Beca's last night and-"

"-Beca did this to you?!" Aubrey screeched.

"What? No! I doubt she could ever hurt anyone, Beca didn't do this, and I was just at her house yesterday hanging out with her and her friends. We had a few beers and it was a great time actually. The most fun I'd had in a long, long time."

"So, what happened?"

"I went home and my dad was waiting up for me to come home."

"You still live with your parents?"

"Temporarily until I find a new apartment, yeah. I broke up with my boyfriend not long ago and couldn't stand living with him anymore."

"Oh, okay. Continue."

Chloe took a deep breath. She had to tell someone what was going on. She was never one for secrets (well, despite the big one about being a lesbian) and struggled to keep it everything in check. She wore her heart on her sleeve but lately, everything was just getting too much. You can only suppress so much before you crack. Having no friends to unload this on to made things a lot worse. If she weren't in such a state, she wouldn't have told the blonde anything but unfortunately for Aubrey, she asked what was wrong and Chloe finally snapped, leaving her the unlucky witness of a sad ginger's emotional break down.

"My dad is a crazy religious man who has always bubble wrapped me and tried to force me to be the 'all-American woman'. When I do anything that negatively affects that image, he would 'correct' me. I was out drinking last night and that is not in his plan for me, I guess. So this-" She guestured to her face. "-And this," she pulled up her shirt slightly to reveal more bruising. "Is him correcting me."

Aubrey gasped as Chloe revealed her further bruising. She brought her hand to cover her mouth in an effort to not flip out or cry, whichever emotion came first. She took a worried glance into Chloe's eyes noting the glassiness of them and her refusal to look at Aubrey. The blonde sat back in her chair and let out a sigh.

"How long?" The question came out with more of an angry tone than she'd expected but it was becoming near impossible for her to hide her emotions. She was _furious._ She wondered how anyone could do something like that to a person, let alone their own daughter.

"He's always done it. More so as I got older and more 'defiant,'" Chloe lifted her fingers to air quotes. "Aubrey, I don't know what to do," her voice cracked as she spoke. "He's my dad, I couldn't got to the police. I can't do that to my own family, but I can't carry on like this. I just want to be happy doing what I love, being with who I want. This past week I've had such a great time. I feel like this is how life is supposed to be. I'm supposed wake up in the morning and go to a job I absolutely love. I'm supposed to go out with people that actually want to be my friends. I'm supposed to go out on dates with who ever I want and I'm supposed to enjoy everything instead of living in constant fear that I'm not what my dad wants me to be, you know?" She sniffled. "I'm sorry Aubrey, I didn't mean to dump all my problems on you. You've not even had your morning coffee yet." She smiled softly at her boss.

Aubrey retuned the smile. "Don't worry about things like that. I don't suppose you have many people to talk to about this stuff and I did sort of force it out of you." She picked up the coffee on her desk and handed it to Chloe. "Here, you need it more than me."

Chloe took the coffee with a small smile that screamed 'thank you' and sipped it slowly. It was lukewarm but caffeine none the less.

"Have you said anything to Beca?"

Not quite remembering what she told Beca last night, Chloe shook her head.

"Are you going to?"

"No, she doesn't need to know. This isn't her problem, I'll figure something out."

Aubrey sighed, she didn't want to keep this from her friend but she had to respect Chloe's wishes. It didn't mean she couldn't help the redhead though. Despite being very wary of her at first, she saw how happy Beca was just at the mention of her name. She saw how Chloe's eyes lit up when her boss walked passed her in the halls and now after seeing how vulnerable and timid this woman was when Beca wasn't around, she couldn't imagine this woman hurting anyone. They had clearly made an impact on each other in such a short amount of time and that was a rarity in itself for her friend. Beca never attached herself to anyone apart from a few people and those people ended up sticking around for a long time. Chloe was here to stay whether the redhead knew it or not.

" _We_ will figure something out, Chloe. You're not alone anymore, I'm going to help you, okay? I don't agree with not telling Beca but I guess that's for you to decided, not me."

Chloe surged forward and engulfed the blonde into a bone-crushing hug.

"Ooof. Okay, first thing's first, you cannot go back to your parent's home. I'm not allowing it."

"But where will I live? I don't have any money for rent until the end of the month," Chloe stated with worry laced in her voice.

"You have two options. Option one is not what I recommend but I understand if you don't feel comfortable with option two. I know a guy who rents out apartments, he owes me a favour and at the very least he could do is give up a property for a few weeks for free for me," she paused to let Chloe think a little before continuing. "Option two is that you stay with me until you get paid and I can keep an eye on you. If you've not lived by yourself before, it'll be hard at first and no offence, you're not in a great emotional state to be dealing with that stress."

Aubrey was aware it was a little strange to offer an employee her spare bed for a few weeks but despite her hard-ass persona she fronted, she was a big softy deep down. Not that she'll ever admit that. She'd probably do this for anyone that came to her and told her what Chloe just told her. Aubrey is one of those people with a dominating personality. She is has a strong need to help people that perhaps goes above what normal people would do for others. She didn't know why, maybe it was that she had been raised that way. Her father was a lawyer who always taught her to look after those who cannot defend themselves. Beca had always described the man as a real life Atticus Finch. Let's not forget what this random redhead that burst into their lives this week meant to Beca. The fact that Beca seems to be infatuated with her only multiplied her need to look after this woman.

"I wouldn't feel right using up your favour like that but I also don't want you to feel like you have to take me in. It'd be a massive inconvenience," Chloe began before Aubrey cut her off.

"Chloe, don't worry about things like that. Look, I have more than enough space. I'm rarely there anyway. I'm usually here most of the time. Someone may as well use it. Plus, I'll know your safe and you can get used to having a little more of your own space before moving out. It's not like it's forever, either. Literally just a few weeks until you can find your own place, no biggie."

Chloe sat and processed her thoughts. Going to stay with her boss was tempting even if she did feel guilty about invading her space. At least there she could sleep in peace and she wouldn't have to worry about her dad when she went on her date with Beca. _Oh, God. Beca._ She had momentarily forgotten how upset the girl was last night when she thought Chloe shot her down. She _really_ needed to call the little DJ.

"Okay, I'll come stay with you."

Aubrey smiled. "Alright, that's that sorted! We'll drop by after work and grab your stuff."

"Umm, my dad will be home then. I'll go back another time to get it."

"Is he home now?" Chloe shook her head. "Well, go now then. Take the morning off to get yourself sorted. Here," She handed Chloe a key and a $10 bill. "Get a second key cut, maybe take a nap 'cause you look like you really need it, sort your make up that's run down your cheeks out and then come back here after lunch time. I only have one thing I need you to do today courtesy of our lovely CEO. She dumped this paper work on me this morning right before you came in."

Chloe nodded and thanked the blonde before practically skipping out of the office. Aubrey shook her head at the ginger girl. She was so naturally happy and full of life, it was worrying how someone could ever be so cruel to her and bring her so far down. It made her feel good that she could help bring that bubbly side back out of hiding.

She looked at the messy pile of work Beca had left on the corner of her desk and sighed. _What the hell am I going to tell Beca?_

 _ ** _AN2: This hasn't been proof read so I apologise for any mistakes and promise I will scold the wine that made me make the mistakes in the first place. Sorry not sorry, but tipsy/drunk writing is so much fun._**  
_


	10. Chapter 10

_**AN: Sorry for the short and late update guys. If you live in the UK you'll know what's been going on and I've actually been busy with campaigning so as you can imagine I've been pretty busy and now I'm pretty depressed about the result. Oh well, life goes on and so does my story…**_

A loud bang on her front door shocked Beca into picking her head up from the kitchen table. Wondering who wanted to see her at 6:30am on a Saturday, she moved her coffee cup to the sink along with the other five she'd collected over the course of the night and ambled to the door. Another obnoxiously loud knock came from the door and Beca sighed.

"Alright! I'm coming!" She shouted.

"That's what she said!" A voice came from atop of the staircase.

"Shut the fuck up, Liam. What are you doing up?"

"I'm not exactly gonna sleep through someone practically banging the door down, am I? Plus, someone's gotta come and save you from whoever wants in so badly," he said coming down the stairs. Suddenly he stopped when he heard voice shouting from outside.

"Rebecca Mitchell, you better answer this door in the next 3 seconds or you're getting my foot up your ass!"

Liam slowly started to ascend the stairs knowing exactly whom the voice belonged to and refused to be around when the shit storm came raining down. Beca watched her friend with a look of betrayal written on her face.

"Pussy." She muttered to herself as she answered the door. "Aubrey, good morning, what a pleasant surprise, do come in." Sarcasm dripped from every word as the words fell out of her mouth. Aubrey stormed into the house and into the kitchen leaving Beca standing in the doorway with her head back and eyes closed throwing a silent protest to the blonde's presence. She stomped back into the kitchen and poured herself another cup of coffee before making eye contact with her friend.

"Okay, lay it on me. What have I done this time?" She spoke after sipping her fresh coffee. Aubrey didn't reply, she simply threw a trashy magazine down on the table and sat down on one of the oak chairs.

Beca's eyes caught the picture on the front page and let out a sigh.

"I don't know what you want me to say. You told you I like her. That is what people who like each other do," she said hoping it would be enough for the blonde.

For the first time since entering the house, Aubrey spoke, "I want you to tell me what the hell you were thinking, Beca! I get you like her, I get you're drawn to her but this should not be something to be made public! She's your employee and to make it worse, she's only been around a week. The press will have a field day and it won't be your name that's dragged through the dirt, it'll be hers! If she decides to leave Capitol, she won't ever get another job in the industry again! Luckily, they have no idea who she is. She's just another face amongst the many you've been with to them. But this is dangerous territory, Beca. Don't be selfish."

Beca stood there in silence taking in everything her friend had said to her. It was true, her name wouldn't be tarnished, no one believed half the rumours about her on a bad day but that wouldn't be the case for Chloe. How could she have been so careless?

"I best call her then, hadn't I?" Beca reached for her phone and unlocked it. "Holy shit, maybe a little later, it is only like twenty to seven."

"Yeah, give it a few hours, she's had a rough couple of days, she needs her sleep."

"What do you mean, 'rough couple of days'? Is she okay? Aubrey, do you know something that I don't?" Aubrey's eyes widened at her accidental slip up.

"She's fine Beca, nothing to worry about, okay? She's just upset about the photo." Aubrey paused and a confused look began to show on her face. "Why are you up so early anyway? It's unlike you to be up this early on the weekend."

Beca shrugged her shoulders. "I couldn't sleep."

"I gathered that much, you look like shit." Beca rolled her eyes at the blonde's admission. "Do you wanna talk about it?"

"I just need to call Chloe. I don't think we ended on a good note Thursday and it feels like she's been avoiding me. I just want to know how she feels about me. Is that too much to ask?"

Aubrey looked sympathetically at her friend. "No, it's not but I think you need to call her and ask. You never know what's going on in someone's life that might be changing the way they handle things. Don't forget she's not long broken up with her boyfriend and had to move back in with her parents which is soul destroying for any adult to have to do."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. I'm gonna go try and get some sleep then I'll call her." Beca moved to hug her friend and started to walk up the stairs as Aubrey let herself out.

Beca awoke a few hours later and checked her phone for the time. Reading it was just gone 10am she immediately sat up to call Chloe. The phone rung out multiple times and the DJ started to panic that the redhead was going to ignore her call. The worry was well placed when no answer came. With a loud groan she threw her phone to the end of her bed and buried her face back into the pillow and began stewing over the annoying situation.

Not five minutes into her pity-party, Motorhead's _Ace of Spades_ burst through her phone's speakers filling her room. She jumped up to see Chloe's name on her screen and rushed to answer it.

"Chloe, hey."

" _Hey, Becs, you called? Sorry I didn't pick up, I was in the shower."_

The wrong type of images started flowing through Beca's brain and stunned her ability to speak momentarily. "Yeah, I did. Umm, I guess I need to talk to you about some, uh, stuff I guess. Umm, is it weird I missed you yesterday?" Beca said mentally slapping herself in the face for sounding so needy. When no reply came from the other side of the phone, backtracking became the only option if she wanted the conversation to continue. "I really shouldn't have said that, I told you I'd back off if you didn't want to start anything with me, which you don't and that sucks but it's okay. God I sound ridiculous, I'm really sorry. Forget I said that." She brought her palm to her forehead and began to repeatedly bash the heel against it trying to knock the desperation out of her.

" _It's fine, Beca, I missed you too. Also, I you never got a chance to finish my sentence the other night."_

"I'm sorry I- wait, you missed me?" Chloe giggled and Beca swore her heart just melted then and there. She was so perfect. It wasn't fair.

" _Yeah, I missed you. So what did you want to talk about?"_

"I uh, uh, uh." _Get it together Mitchell!_ "I wanted to apologise about the picture in that stupid magazine and let you know Aubrey has it under control, there's no need to panic. They have no idea who you are so if you keep your head down for a week or so, you'll be fine."

" _I know, Aubrey told me this morning, don't worry I'm not mad or anything. I know it's not your fault, it's not like you asked them to take the photo."_

"Well, thank you for understanding anyway. But again, I'm really sorry, not just for that but for everything that's gone on. I know I've come on way too strong and scared you off. It was never my intention to make you uncomfortable or anything, I just- I don't know. I feel really drawn to you and I don't know why because we barely know each other. Anyway, before I go off on another ramble again, I'm sorry."

" _Don't be sorry. I feel the same."_

"You do?"

" _Yeah, I do."_

"Okay, now I'm confused, because I'm like 78% sure you tried to let me down gently the other night."

" _I was trying to let you down gently."_ Chloe sighed before continuing. _"I really like you, Beca. You're funny, you're ridiculously talented and you're sweet. Not to mention adorable, even when you're rambling_."

"Hey, I'm not adorable. I'm badass. Adorable is for babies and dogs."

" _Shut up, you're adorable. But as much as I like you, I can't start anything right now. I'm not in the right emotional place and I don't want to drag you into that, it's not fair on you. If the circumstances were different, I'd be jumping at the opportunity but unfortunately, there's a lot in the way that I need to deal with first. I'm sorry"_

"I understand. You need to put you first, never apologise for that, okay? I'm not exactly going to be jumping ship anytime soon. I meant what I said the other day. If I can help you, Chlo, I will. I really like you and not just in that way, I think you're a wonderful person and I want you ad your hard work to not go unnoticed. So, if you need me, I'm here, no matter what the problem is but just promise me one thing?"

" _What's that?"_

"You gotta let me know when you sort out your shit because I am gonna woo the socks off you, Beale."

" _Beca Mitchell, the closet romantic. Who'd have guessed?"_

"Psh, only thing about me that's in the closet, darling."

Liam's head poked through her bedroom door and looked at Beca like he had something to ask but got sidetracked by his curiosity about the phone call.

"Is that my favourite redhead?!" he shouted and ran into the room, grabbing the phone out of Beca's hands. "Hey, Chloe! How're you, cutieful?"

" _Hey Liam, I'm okay, how're you? And what's a cutieful?"_

"Duh, cute and beautiful at the same time. Bloody Yanks. But yeah, I'm grand thanks for asking! I'm going to pass you back to Beca now because if looks could kill, I'd be six feet under. Bye!"

" _Bye, Lion Man,"_ she said referring to his mane-like hair and bushy beard.

"Lion Man? I like it. Beca? I now go by Lion Man and nothing else. I shall go alert the others but then I must return to discuss with you what I came in here for so say bye to your lady friend!" he handed her the phone and began banging on the rooms that held his friends shouting "I am now Lion Man! Kneel before me!"

Beca heard a "fuck off Lion Man" and "shut the hell up" from the guys as she continued her conversation.

"Well, I best get going and see what Lion Man wants. I'll see you at work, yeah?"

" _Yeah, sure. I'll see you then. Bye,"_ And with that, she hung up.

Beca crawled out of bed to find Liam and see what he wanted.

He was sat downstairs humming along to the song ' _Little Lion Man'_ and it was then she realised what Chloe had started. He was not going to let this go, he had a new nickname and he loved it.

"What did you want, Lion Man?"

"Stacie finally managed to get a flight, she lands in an hour so I was wondering if you would come with me to pick her up?"

"It's about time, she was meant to be her Thursday. Sure, I'll come with, it'll give me something to do today."

"Awesome! Go get dressed then and we'll go."

Beca placed her hand to her chest in mock offence. "What? Are my sweats that have probably not seen a washing machine in a week not good enough for you and Stacie? Psh, some friends you are. I'm hurt."

"Shut up, superstar. Such a diva. Hurry up, I don't wanna get caught in traffic."

Beca chuckled and began her way back upstairs.

 _ **An: Again guys, if there's something you'd like to see happen or have any prompts, let me know on here, twitter or Instagram on the same username.**_


End file.
